{"id":24581,"date":"2024-12-04T00:15:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T07:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-democrats-speak-out-against-presidential-pardon-of-hunter-biden\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:56:24","slug":"colorado-democrats-speak-out-against-presidential-pardon-of-hunter-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-democrats-speak-out-against-presidential-pardon-of-hunter-biden\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Democrats speak out against presidential pardon of Hunter Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"President
President Joe Biden, center, speaks with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., left, and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, right, as he arrives at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs on May 31, 2023. (Andrew Harnik\/Associated Press file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 Colorado Democrats criticized President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n

Hunter was convicted of three felony tax offenses. The U.S. Department of Justice said Hunter could have faced up to 17 years in federal prison. Biden pardoned Hunter on all charges committed or may have committed in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

In an interview Monday on CNN, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said Biden was hypocritical for the move; Biden had said for months he would not pardon his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you turn around and you say month after month after month you\u2019re not going to pardon your son and you do pardon him, putting your personal (life) ahead of your responsibilities to the American people, it just gives the American people a sense that there\u2019s one system for the rich and powerful and there\u2019s another system for everyone else,\u201d Bennet said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper sympathized with Biden as a father making a hard choice for his son. However, Hickenlooper said Hunter should not be put above the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery human being has to make really impossible decisions sometimes,\u201d Hickenlooper said in an interview with The Durango Herald at the U.S. Capitol. \u201cBut generally, I think we should go with \u2018the law is the law.\u2019 He was found guilty by the majority of his peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet said the DOJ should have an independent role in deciding Hunter\u2019s case. In a written statement, Biden said the charges against his son were politically motivated and were meant to be an attack on him and his family.<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on multiple occasions that Biden would not pardon Hunter. However, Biden said after \u201cwrestling with the decision\u201d he changed his mind this past weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe believes in the justice system, but he also believes that politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,\u201d Jean-Pierre said on Air Force One.<\/p>\n

Bennet said that the pardon was \u201ca gift to Donald Trump.\u201d He thinks the pardon could set a precedent for how President-elect Donald Trump uses the power of the pardon in his coming administration. In 2020, Trump pardoned his son-in-law\u2019s father Charles Kushner, who Trump plans to appoint to serve as U.S. ambassador to France.<\/p>\n

The interview on CNN comes after Bennet said on X that the pardon put personal interests before political duty.<\/p>\n

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also spoke out against Biden\u2019s decision on X. Polis said he was disappointed that Biden put his family ahead of country. He said Hunter is not above the law and the pardon sets a precedent that future presidents may follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation. Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President\u2019s son,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

Maria Tedesco is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mtedesco@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor, senator say move sets a bad precedent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[819,28,716,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-president-joseph-biden","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78591,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581\/revisions\/78591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}