Fatherhood’s Faults

Pardon Me But Not You

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On November 25, 2024, commencing at 11:07 am, President Joe Biden spoke on the expansive South Lawn of the White House:

They tell me there’s 2,500 people here today—(applause)—looking for a pardon. (Laughter.) . . .

Let’s bring Peach up to join us.

They tell me Peach weighs about 42 pounds.

What do you say, Peach?

Peach is making his last-minute plea here. (Laughter.)

(White House Transcript)

With good humor and some schtick, Peach and his fellow overweight turkey, Blossom, received a reprieve from the oven and somebody’s table, presumably to live out their days with bad knees, high blood pressure, overworked hearts, no streaming TV to pass the time, and all the other ailments that engorged, sedentary turkeys suffer.

White House Photo

Because I’m a father, I’m drawn to compelling father-son relationships. Because I’m a fiction writer, I pull back the curtain on a conversation we haven’t heard:

Hunter: You pardoned the turkeys, but you won’t pardon me?

Joe: It’s something I do every year. I did it in ’21, ’22, I’m sure I did it in ’23. Let me check with my secretary, she’ll know if I did it last year.

Hunter: Don’t walk away from me, Dad. Can I still call you Dad?

Joe: Of course I’m your Dad. I remember being there when you were born.

Hunter: You pardoned some strangers, but you won’t pardon your own son? You keep forgetting I’m the last son you’ve got. You’re sending me to jail.

Joe: I’m not the one sentencing you, it’s that judge, whatever her name is.

Hunter: It’s you Dad. It’s you slapping the cuffs on me and locking me in a cage. Don’t be surprised if I start using again, I can get the stuff in prison you know. It’ll all be on you, because you love some birds more than your own flesh and blood.

Six days later, in a closed room on a Sunday as many traveled home after spending the holiday with families and gorging on end-of-season college football games, not before a fanfare of thousands, but to Hunter’s eagerly waiting lawyers, Joe Biden pardoned his son.

Anyone shocked by Joe Biden’s pardon, raise your hand ✋ in the comments below. Judging from the reaction on both sides of the aisle, and conversations with friends, large numbers of people were surprised that Joe ignored his repeated promises not to pardon Hunter. They were also surprised by the sweeping breadth, covering Hunter’s actions of the past decade, known or unknown. Who you calling Daddy now?

Much has been said about how difficult it must be to allow your only son to go to jail, the trials of the father. There’s that, but it overlooks another aspect of the father-son relationship. This Joe-Hunter thing looked different. Joe wasn’t the stern, spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child father of a bygone era, nor was he the loving, arm around the troubled boy kind of dad either. Hunter allowed to freely name drop, My Dad’s the Veep, My Dad’s . . . Instead of disapproval by Dad, Hunter with easy access past Secret Service into the White House.

Theirs was a coziness that looked like the family business, where everybody wins and let’s just get Hunter back on his feet. Again.

In trashing the Justice Department, maybe Joe made some fair points on the prosecutors being over-zealous going after Hunter. Did they bring criminal charges for tax matters that are usually handled through the civil process? They did offer Hunter a plea deal that was unprecedented in its leniency. Did they get spotlighted favoring Hunter and then go overboard trying to cure?

Does anyone really see Hunter as a victim? Hard to see Hunter as anything other than a privileged man-child using his connections to live a life well above the rest of us. By the way, Joe’s reasons in pardoning looked like the work of Hunter’s lawyers, with some editing by White House counsel. It’s a clue as to who was directing the show.

As a lawyer, I love the law, and despite my hard-earned, thick-skinned cynicism, think our legal system, while not perfect (whose is?), is pretty good and goes a long way to differentiating us from the Putins and Maduros (Venezuela) and other strongman governments. The kind where certain people are above the law. Joe Biden’s repeated promise to trust the system, to trust him, followed by his reversal and rebuke of the system seems like a cheap shot and a continuation of a trend at the highest levels of government in moving toward Rule of Man over Rule of Law.

Joe, a father torn between Duty to Country and Duty to Son? As a father and a fiction writer looking at what motivates us, I can’t ignore the story. Under duress from my cynicism I began writing this piece back in late summer, after Biden pulled out of the running for reelection, before the pardoning of the turkeys. Hard to see Joe as anything other than a knowing player the whole time.

Joe’s winking at us, We live in a two-tier system after all.

All the Best,

Geoff

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