Only about two in ten Americans support President Joe Biden’s decision to issue a blanket pardon for his son, Hunter, according to a new Associated Press poll released Wednesday.
After Joe Biden and his staff repeatedly stated that he would not pardon his son, the president announced that he did just that on the weekend after Thanksgiving, excusing Hunter of any crimes he committed or may have committed dating all the way back to 2014. The AP’s new poll indicates that just 22% of American adults approve of his decision, compared to 51% of respondents who disapprove of the president’s choice to break his promise and pardon his son, a convicted felon.
The pardon is not especially popular among Democrats, though they approve of it at significantly higher rates than independents or Republicans, the poll shows. While 38% of Democrat respondents approved of the pardon, just 12% of independents and 7% of Republicans sampled felt the same way. Notably, only 27% of Democrat respondents opposed it.
The period of time covered by the pardon spans back to 2014, which happens to be the year that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that paid him handsomely for his work despite his lack of professional experience in the energy sector. Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma lies at the heart of allegations that Hunter Biden effectively sold access to his powerful father to foreign interests around the world, sharing the proceeds with other family members and failing to adequately report these activities to the relevant American authorities at the time.
Hunter Biden was convicted on federal gun and tax charges in Delaware and California, respectively, following years of intense scrutiny of his overseas business dealings and personal affairs during and after the time his father served as vice president to former President Barack Obama.
Joe Biden said in his announcement that his son was “selectively” and “unfairly” targeted by prosecutors, though some have noted that Hunter Biden avoided potentially serious Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) charges in connection to his lucrative business dealings with oligarchs hailing from Ukraine, China, Romania and elsewhere.
The president’s claim that his son is the victim of politicized prosecution struck some observers as rich given that Joe Biden’s Justice Department aggressively went after President-elect Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s political opponent, in the lead-up to the 2024 elections.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who frequently comments on legal news in the media, said that the broad language of the Hunter Biden pardon is “virtually unprecedented” and represents “a really breathtaking act of contempt for the American people” shortly after it was announced to the public.
The AP sampled 1,251 adults for the poll, using a probability-based panel designed to represent the American population. The poll has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.
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