President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter Biden of federal gun, drug, and tax charges.

The pardon, which was issued on Sunday, is “full and unconditional,” for “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” Over the past year, the president had said multiple times that he wouldn't pardon his son.

Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced for gun and tax charges in December after being convicted of three felony charges for unlawfully possessing a firearm, submitting a false statement into a federal record, and lying about his drug use to purchase a gun in 2018. This is the first time in history that the son of a sitting U.S. president has been criminally convicted.

Outlets across the spectrum have criticized the pardon, though a few voices, mostly on the left, have defended the Bidens. 

A writer for the Los Angeles Times (Lean Left bias) argued, “Hunter may have been singled out for prosecution, but Hunter did in fact screw up. And President Biden, who has often said that Americans in the Trump era are engaged in a ‘battle to save the soul of the nation,’ has shown that he, too, will warp justice for his own ends.”

An article in Newsweek (Center bias) by columnist Mark Weaver (Lean Right bias) said, “Trust is the currency of any presidency. Break it, and your power to govern loses value faster than an indicted pyramid scheme. The founders assumed public outrage would act as a check on unjust pardons but, with the election over and Joe Biden already boxing up his things for the moving vans, angry Americans have no recourse. In an era of outrage overflow, this latest transgression will do little more than add to the disgust of those who presume the rules are different at the top.”

In a letter to the editor, a USA Today (Lean Left bias) reader wrote, “Maybe President Biden finally glimpsed the dismantling of the justice system that he has believed in and honored during his long political career. Maybe he finally realized that American voters don’t care too much about a justice system that is supposed to hold a convicted felon accountable for his crimes.”

A writer for the New York Post Opinion (Right bias) argued, “The person who corrupted the legal system in this country is Joe Biden. He weaponized it against his political nemesis Donald Trump, and Trump’s supporters. Trump is the victim of unjust prosecution, not Hunter. But the American people understand that, as they proved on Election Day when they elected Trump in a landslide, despite the lawfare. That’s why the news of Hunter’s pardon is the least surprising news of the decade.”