What does a BIDEN Presidency look like?

[Tonitrus]

The US President got the power because state governors had the power (because Royal governors had had that power because the king had had that power).  The idea was that it was a safeguard against injustices that the legal system could not address.

I'm not sure when the end-of-term bulk pardons became popular.  I'll look into it.

Yeah. My understanding was that it was basically the prerogative of mercy which in the UK system was the monarch's being adapted (always think the American President's constitutional role is basically not a million miles from an early 19th century British monarch). I think other constitutional systems often have some form of mercy or clemency.

In the UK now they're very, very rare (and like most prerogative powers, exercised by the monarch on advice from ministers). In part this is because there's a Criminal Cases Review Commission which exists to examine (and potentially overturn) possible miscarriages of justice, which used to be a big reason for mercy (I suspect lack of death penalty also makes it less of an important route).

The last pardon I can think of was posthumous for Alan Turing (I think during Gordon Brown's minsitry). That wasn't uncontroversial, because the argument was that if Turing was getting pardoned all gay men convicted under those crimes should also be pardoned - the Home Office response to that was that those crimes around "unnatural acts" were broad and covered things that are still criminal and they didn't have records of who was, say, convicted of consenting gay sex over the age of consent that are now morally acceptable v things that are still crimes. So it ended up just being a symbolic gesture for one particularly famous gay (although why they couldn't also pardon Sir John Gielgud for cottaging in Chelsea is beyond me).

Mercy seems to be the reasoning as well (per Alexander Hamilton from Federalist No. 74):

He is also to be authorized to grant "reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, EXCEPT IN CASES OF IMPEACHMENT." Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed. The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel. As the sense of responsibility is always strongest, in proportion as it is undivided, it may be inferred that a single man would be most ready to attend to the force of those motives which might plead for a mitigation of the rigor of the law, and least apt to yield to considerations which were calculated to shelter a fit object of its vengeance. The reflection that the fate of a fellow-creature depended on his sole fiat, would naturally inspire scrupulousness and caution; the dread of being accused of weakness or connivance, would beget equal circumspection, though of a different kind. On the other hand, as men generally derive confidence from their numbers, they might often encourage each other in an act of obduracy, and might be less sensible to the apprehension of suspicion or censure for an injudicious or affected clemency. On these accounts, one man appears to be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of government, than a body of men.

[Sheilbh]

Interesting - feel like we could do with even more of those points of gratuitous mercy now.

[Solmyr]

Biden should just pardon everyone and watch the prison-industrial complex collapse.

[crazy canuck]

Was Clinton the first one to pardon a family member?  I have a vague memory of Carter not doing that for his brother, but could be wrong.

Charles Kushner, father of Jared, was pardoned by end-of-term Trump for tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering (all of which charges he pled guilty to).  He's now to become the ambassador to France.

So just Clinton, Trump, and Biden.

Thanks

[Norgy]

The optics of the pardon do not look great, simply because Biden was insistent that he would not.

Hunter Biden's crimes aren't exactly at Tony Soprano level, but watering down the judicial system is never a good thing. I would expect more of this to happen in the next four years.

Norway's never had this tradition of pardons. I have kept my grandfather's "Was not a member of Nasjonal Samling (the Quisling party)" card. Because. Well, just because, really.

I don't understand the presidential pardon principles. Simple as that. Nice that you save a turkey once a year, but the rest? Nah. Seems like an abuse of the judicial system and rule of law.

[garbon]

The optics of the pardon do not look great, simply because Biden was insistent that he would not.

Hunter Biden's crimes aren't exactly at Tony Soprano level, but watering down the judicial system is never a good thing. I would expect more of this to happen in the next four years.

Norway's never had this tradition of pardons. I have kept my grandfather's "Was not a member of Nasjonal Samling (the Quisling party)" card. Because. Well, just because, really.

I don't understand the presidential pardon principles. Simple as that. Nice that you save a turkey once a year, but the rest? Nah. Seems like an abuse of the judicial system and rule of law.

I doubt Biden has fucks to give about how he is perceived at this point.

[Norgy]

If I were Joe, I'd be doing coke and eating ice cream and stumbling on and off Air Force One all day. Which, incidentally, I think was Dubya's entire presidency.

[Barrister]

If I were Joe, I'd be doing coke and eating ice cream and stumbling on and off Air Force One all day. Which, incidentally, I think was Dubya's entire presidency.

Whatever you think of his presidency, Dubya is famously a teetotaler for a number of years (even after vaguely admitting to problems in his youth).

[Norgy]

I know. And how I actually miss him.
That says a lot.

[Solmyr]

The optics of the pardon do not look great, simply because Biden was insistent that he would not.

Hunter Biden's crimes aren't exactly at Tony Soprano level, but watering down the judicial system is never a good thing. I would expect more of this to happen in the next four years.

There's not going to be a judicial system in January anyway, so Joe is salvaging what he can.

[Neil]

I don't think anyone's record as VP is important I agree on 2020 and I think 2024 will be contested.

I think a part of Biden's legacy will be that the Vice President is not a throwaway position.  I find it interesting that the office became incredibly consequential at one of the two times in the last fifty years that it was filled by someone who was a distinct political non-entity (the other time being Dan Quayle). 

I just saw this now.

Dan Quayle may wind up being more consequential than you think.

Mike Pence in the lead up to January 6 was under intense pressure from Trump to refuse to count the electoral votes.  He consulted with Dan Quayle (they're both Indianans, Republicans, and Vice Presidents) - who was quite emphatic that Pence needed to count the votes as required.

That Dan Quayle acted as a mentor and advisor to a later VP doesn't change that he was a bit of a shock in 1988, and he didn't have the kind of profile within the party that you typically saw with VPs.  Even if Harris somehow rehabilitates herself and wins the presidency down the road, she would remain a shockingly, cynically bad VP pick in 2020. 

[Neil]

Reportedly Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was quite annoyed to find out she couldn't pardon certain people once she became Premier.

And that's my problem with her in a nutshell.  Her governing principles are American.  She cannot be trusted with any kind of Canadian institution, because her conception of how the world should be is completely unrelated to the Canadian experience. 

That said, I understand the concept of the pardon is part of the American system of checks and balances. 

[Barrister]

That Dan Quayle acted as a mentor and advisor to a later VP doesn't change that he was a bit of a shock in 1988, and he didn't have the kind of profile within the party that you typically saw with VPs.  Even if Harris somehow rehabilitates herself and wins the presidency down the road, she would remain a shockingly, cynically bad VP pick in 2020. 

Dan Quayle's problem is he was just so damn young.  Going back - he was 41 at the time he was nominated for Vice President in 1988.  He was a two-term senator from smallish Indiana.  So the mage of him being a dunce was set in the public mind really early.

I wasn't a fan of the Harris pick.  It was clear she was a "DEI" pick, chosen because of her race and gender.  That being said her resume was fairly impressive as former AG for California and 1st time senator from that state.

She was not put in a position to succeed as VP (I mean - she was put in charge of tacking the "root causes" of illegal immigration).

So I don't think she was a "shockingly bad" VP pick.  In a Democratic Party that was dominated by calls for inclusivity, she balanced Joe Biden (who was an old, white man) by being a younger (50s) black woman.  She was an average/mediocre political talent (as seen by winning her senate seat, but flaming out early in 2020 primaries).

Really she was a defensible pick in 2020 but showed Biden was never looking to the future and never really considered he was picking his potential successor.

[Valmy]

What was devastating was Joe Biden's other decision: to run again in 2024.

If Harris had earned the nomination in a full open Primary she would have been strong enough to win the election. Or whomever did so.

Ultimately that decision is what made Joe Biden's presidency a failed one. He said he was going to be the bridge to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Now we just have to hope there is another generation of Democratic leaders.

[PJL]

What was devastating was Joe Biden's other decision: to run again in 2024.

If Harris had earned the nomination in a full open Primary she would have been strong enough to win the election. Or whomever did so.

Ultimately that decision is what made Joe Biden's presidency a failed one.

Biden was right to step down in July, just wrong to do this year. Had it been the year before, it would have been the perfect time for others to get their candidacies together for the upcoming primaries.