President Biden’s surprise pardon of his son Hunter has prompted calls for the outgoing commander-in-chief to grant clemency to other Americans before he hands over the White House to President-elect Trump next month.
Some Democrats have used the Hunter Biden pardon to call on the president to give clemency to death row inmates and nonviolent offenders. Others have suggested Biden issue preemptive pardons to those Trump considers his enemies. Meanwhile, outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) said Biden should pardon his own former 2024 rival.
Here are some possible pardons Biden could issue before he leaves the White House in January.
Death row inmates
Progressive voices on Capitol Hill are pushing for Biden to give clemency to inmates facing the death penalty.
“Don‘t stop at Hunter Biden,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) told a CNN panel Monday. “Pardon the 40 people who are on death row right now to get them off of death row, number one.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told The Independent that “it’s less about the fact that the president pardoned his son and more about the fact that he’s only really pardoning his son” when there are Americans serving life in prison and “who are on death row, who should be taken off death row.”
Shortly before the news of Hunter’s pardon, the ACLU had issued a guide urging Biden to use his final months in office to commute federal death sentences. And groups that have long been calling for death row pardons, like the Prison Policy Initiative, are piling on in the wake of the Hunter Biden move.
Nonviolent offenders
Several Democrats openly criticized Biden, saying the move would ultimately hurt his party. But other lawmakers used it as an opportunity to call attention to other opportunities for clemency in the justice........