The Associated Press contributed to this report
The news that President Joe Biden issued a sweeping federal pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, over the weekend has sparked sharp responses — and counter-responses — from Colorado Democrats.
“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Gov. Jared Polis wrote of Biden on the social media platform X.
Polis later elaborated on his thinking in an interview with the NPR program, Here and Now, calling the pardon disappointing.
"I understand as a father why someone would want to do that. But I think if we're going to be criticizing, for instance, the pardons Trump made last time around, and we should ... we need to take the moral high ground here, and say the power of pardon is a very serious authority,” Polis said. “Certainly it shouldn't be used for those who are well-connected, or family members .... And I worry that that opens the door for President Trump to go even further with misuse of the pardon."
Hunter Biden was facing a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions. The president’s pardon wipes out those cases, as well as covering any other offenses by the younger Biden between 2014 and 2024.
Biden had long insisted he would not use the power of the pardon for his son. But in a statement explaining his about-face, the president said, “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
Outgoing Democratic State Rep. David Ortiz defended the president’s decision, noting that Biden has already lost two children, a daughter to a car crash and a son to glioblastoma, a type of cancer in the brain or spinal cord.
“You don’t have the moral high ground here,” he wrote in response to Polis’ tweet on X.
But some Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation echoed Polis’ concern.
“President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” wrote Sen. Michael Bennet on X. And Rep. Jason Crow called the pardon a mistake.
“I think it will make it harder for us going forward when we talk about upholding democracy,” Crow told the New York Times.
