Pardon Hunter and drop out: How Biden can spare his party, his family and his image

Few presidents as unpopular as President Biden have ever sought reelection. In the modern history of polling, only former Presidents Carter and Trump rival him with their disapproval ratings at this point in their respective presidencies.

What’s more, “Bidenomics” is already making Trump look much better by comparison. This reality has many Democrats nervous, looking for some way to ditch their current standard bearer and replace him with (almost) anyone else.

Biden’s loss of mental acuity has reached a point where it can no longer be denied or defended. Concerns about Biden’s age and sharpness are turning up in every new poll, expressed by overwhelming majorities of voters. Normally, this would be cause enough for party leaders to convince him he shouldn’t run again. But having spent the last three years swearing up and down that Biden is as sharp as ever, Democrats can hardly make that their excuse for ditching him now. It would turn everything they’ve said about him into a lie, to say nothing of the optics of kicking the old guy to the curb.

This problem seemed impossible to solve — until now.

Before we get to the solution, there is a second problem Democrats face even if they successfully give Biden an off-ramp from his presidency. This one, too, seemed impossible to fix, until now.

Vice President Harris is, by virtue of her position, Biden’s natural heir, but most Democrats do not want her as their nominee under any circumstances. The most prominent Democrats in Washington, such as Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (Md.), can’t bring themselves to spit out an endorsement for her renomination alongside Biden, even though they know exactly how bad it looks.

As a candidate in 2020, Harris was so ineffective that she didn’t even make it to the first vote. As a debater, she was disemboweled on national television by an upstart congresswoman who had no shot at the nomination. And as vice president, she is the only politician consistently less popular than Joe. 

Still, how does the progressive establishment dump a “historic” black woman vice president for what would likely be just another rich white guy like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D)? 

The Hunter Biden indictments present a solution to both of these problems at once. 

The president’s son faces up to 10 years in prison. And thanks to Hunter Biden’s careless data security practices, President Biden is facing an impeachment inquiry regarding the highly improbable (unless you’re cynical enough about Washington) enrichment of so many of his family members from shady foreign sources.

Thanks to the breadcrumbs on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, Bidens of all ages, including even a grandchild, have streams of income flowing to them through a web of shell companies, which have in turn received small fortunes from overseas entities with which Hunter Biden did business. His business, of course, was selling Joe’s influence, often in countries where President Biden, as vice president, had been given direct government oversight of U.S. policy.

If there is an innocent explanation for why so many Bidens set up and derived so much income from companies that produce nothing and offer no services, it would have been offered by now.

This is why, as much as sympathetic pundits try to paint the whole scandal as a nothingburger, the impeachment inquiry has the White House nervous. Congressional subpoena power is limited to legislative purposes or oversight duties, unless it’s about impeachment. Now, the bank records to make the case are no longer out of reach. If there were nothing there, wouldn’t President Biden have released them already, if only to make Republicans look crazy?

But Biden has a trump card. He can derail all of this with as little damage to Democrats as possible if he just pardons Hunter Biden and drops out of the race for re-election.

President Biden cannot resign, because that would make Harris president. But imagine if he were to deliver a defiant, plaintive speech in which he announced a pardon for Hunter Biden and the end of his re-election campaign.

“I love my son!” President Biden could bellow. “And he is being targeted because of me. This is why I must do this now. I have issued a pardon for him, and I will no longer be seeking renomination.”

Having thus attained political martyrdom, Biden could then finish out his term quietly, as other Democrats compete for the 2024 nomination.

This solves everyone’s problem. Not only does it give Biden a graceful way out and Democrats a chance to nominate someone less unpopular, but it also leaves Hunter Biden in the clear and takes all the wind out of impeachment. President Biden’s lawyers would spend the waning months of his presidency stalling Congress, with a clear finish line. Impeachment ends whenever he leaves office, and with it any subpoenas Republicans issue. 

It’s the perfect exit strategy, and the only one I can think of that makes Democrats come out looking decent without having to nominate either Biden or Harris for president.  

Derek Hunter is host of the Derek Hunter Podcast and a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).