LARRY ELDER: Biden Confirms What Conservatives Have Known All Along

After months of insisting he would not pardon his son Hunter, President Joe Biden did just that — as almost anyone other than left-wing cable news legal analysts and Trump-hating late-night comics expected. In doing so, Biden effectively confirmed the Trump “conspiracy theory” of a two-tiered justice system.

Not only does the pardon cover Hunter Biden’s convictions on tax and gun charges, it also covers any crimes that he may have been committed since 2014, the year Hunter joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Biden’s pardon statement said: “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution.”

Biden added: “Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”

Left-wing pundits, with some exceptions, offered various excuses to defend the pardon Biden vowed not to grant: Well, hey, this was his son; Hunter was unfairly targeted; President-elect Donald Trump vowed to go after political enemies; and Trump was a greater abuser of the pardon power.