Abdul Qadir | Team TrickyScribe: Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh was prophetic when he said that ‘History will judge me more kindly’. US president Joe Biden who will relinquish the most powerful office on earth in the next two weeks, however, cannot afford to assert the same for the simple reason that unlike Manmohan, Biden did favour to his own family members and by granting pardon to his wayward son, Biden did not cover himself with glory.
Mughal king Jahangir is said to have delivered a tit for tat punishment to his son for stalking a married woman. By granting amnesty to his own son, Biden, in a way short circuited the due process of law as there is near unanimity among legals on Biden Junior’s involvement in tax evasion.
Earlier, US President’s son Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax charges, and was found guilty of being an illegal drug user in possession of a gun in June – becoming the first child of a sitting president to be a convicted of a crime.
Making a wild U-turn from his stated position on not granting clemency to his son, Biden allowed the father in him to overpower the President of an established democracy like the USA.
Earlier he said that he (President Biden) will abide by the jury decision, and will not pardon him. Inventing alibi for his ethically questionable decision, Biden said that although he believed in the justice system, “politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice”.
From day one, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted, said the US President.
Biden said he wrestled with the decision, and added: “Once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Biden was the 46th President of the USA. But 43 of the 45 predecessors of Biden did not misuse the clemency powers to favour their near and dear ones.
On January 20, 2001, during his final hours in office, President Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton. Roger had been convicted in 1985 for cocaine possession and drug trafficking, serving about a year in prison.
Joe Biden’s predecessor cum successor Donald Trump was the second US President to do so as in December 2020, President Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Charles Kushner had been convicted in 2004 on charges including tax evasion, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. He served a prison sentence of approximately two years before his pardon.
The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 marked a significant blemish on Biden’s foreign policy legacy. While fulfilling a campaign promise to end America’s longest war, the withdrawal’s mismanagement drew widespread criticism. His presidency faced significant challenges, like high inflation and rising partisan divides.
On the plus side Biden showed leadership qualities by his efforts to significantly stabilise a nation in crisis, rebuild public trust in government, and promote policies addressing urgent social, economic, and environmental challenges.
Biden’s decision to confer the highest civilian award on someone as controversial as George Soros has not gone down well with a sizeable section of independent observers as Soros’s achievement in the field of press freedom and freedom of speech is more than offset by his apparently questionable business transactions.
Not only that, honour for Soros is bound to upset a big international player like India. In the last few weeks of his Presidency, Biden took controversial decisions as if there was no tomorrow.
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