December 3, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s decision to go back on his word and issue a categorical pardon for his son, Hunter, just weeks before his scheduled sentencing on gun and tax convictions was a surprise that wasn’t all that surprising.

Not to those who had witnessed the president’s shared anguish over his two sons after the boys survived a car crash that killed Biden’s first wife and a daughter more than a half-century ago. Or to those who heard the president regularly lament the death of his older son, Beau, from cancer or voice concerns — largely in private — about Hunter’s sobriety and health after years of deep addiction.

But by choosing to put his family first, the 82-year-old president — who had pledged to restore a fractured public’s trust in the nation’s institutions and respect for the rule of law — has raised new questions about his already teetering legacy.

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