President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Nov. 29.

The best thing that can be said about President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter for any federal crimes committed over the past decade is that it does not appear to have been done for cynical reasons, or out of the president’s desire to protect himself legally: There has never been a shred of evidence suggesting that the son’s crimes were done in league with his father in any way.

In his Sunday-night statement announcing the pardon, the president said the outcome of his son’s legal travails had been infected by political persecution, and that he hoped Americans "will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”

We can certainly understand why a father would knock down any impediment to lift his son out of such a predicament. But that does not mean a president should perpetrate such a decision.

Advertisement

Article continues below this........

© Times Union