Biden's sweeping Hunter pardon at odds with longtime rhetoric on executive power: 'No one is above the law'

President Joe Biden faced mounting disapproval Monday for his determination to contented a sweeping pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, with detractors not lone citing the breadth of the pardon itself but besides the grade to which it breaks with the president's past of extolling the virtues of the judiciary arsenic a bulwark against enforcement abuses of power.

In fact, Biden took purpose astatine these precise abuses during a code successful July, successful which helium warned of a "dangerous precedent" created by the Supreme Court's determination that expanded the presumption of statesmanlike immunity. 

"This federation was founded connected the rule that determination are nary kings successful America," Biden said successful July. "No 1 is supra the law, not adjacent the president of the United States."

Biden's remarks were a effect to the Supreme Court's July 1 ruling that expanded the presumption of statesmanlike immunity, and which helium criticized as fundamentally changing the separation of powers.

"With today’s Supreme Court determination connected statesmanlike immunity, that fundamentally changed," Biden said successful July.

"For each applicable purposes, today’s determination astir surely means that determination are virtually nary limits connected what a president tin do," helium added.

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President Joe Biden delivers the yearly State of the Union code successful Washington, DC, successful 2024.  (Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

In their decision, justices penning for the 4-3 Supreme Court bulk said that presidents are entitled to implicit immunity from immoderate actions taken wrong the scope of "core law powers" of the office. 

A presumption of immunity besides applies to different actions taken portion holding office, they said.

Biden strenuously objected to that ruling, citing heavy concerns implicit the risks of unchecked powerfulness successful the enforcement subdivision — and the erosion of what helium described arsenic indispensable parameters for a sitting president. 

The presidency, Biden said then, "is the astir almighty bureau successful the world. It’s an bureau that not lone tests your judgment. But possibly adjacent much importantly, it’s an bureau that tin trial your character."

"You not lone look moments wherever you request the courageousness to workout the afloat powerfulness of the presidency," Biden said successful his speech. "You besides look moments wherever you request the contented to respect the limits of the powerfulness of the bureau of the presidency."

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President Biden and Hunter Biden get successful Syracuse, New York (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Six months later, Biden is facing sharp disapproval from immoderate lawmakers and ineligible analysts for his determination to pardon Hunter, an about-face from his earlier promises, and a sweeping extortion that covers immoderate national crimes Hunter Biden "has committed oregon whitethorn person committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, done Dec. 1, 2024. 

In announcing the pardon, Biden criticized the unfair probe and prosecution of his son, a process helium said was "infected" by authorities and led to a "miscarriage of justice."

"No tenable idiosyncratic who looks astatine the facts of Hunter’s cases tin scope immoderate different decision than Hunter was singled retired lone due to the fact that helium is my lad — and that is wrong," the president said successful a connection Sunday.

President Biden blasted a ruling by the Supreme Court earlier this twelvemonth which helium said fundamentally made it truthful determination were ‘virtually nary limits’ to statesmanlike power. (Getty Images)

But immoderate critics besides cited fears that Biden's pardon could further erode the public's presumption of the Justice Department — giving credence to Trump's predominant complaints that the Department of Justice is simply a governmental apparatus susceptible of being "weaponized," alternatively than a section that strives to enactment independently and mostly without governmental influence. 

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Biden is "essentially endorsing Trump's long-held sentiment that the Department of Justice is politicized and isn't acting impartially," longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News Digital of the pardon.

 Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.