This Democratic Senator nailed it on the Hunter pardon

Meet Michael Bennet.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet

I’ve read — and watched — a whole bunch of commentary over the past 48 hours about President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter.

And I finally found someone who, to my mind, articulated my issue with the pardon — and why I think it not only taints the Biden legacy but also hamstrings Democrats going forward into the Trump administration — perfectly.

It’s Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. Here’s what he said on Tuesday night in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:

I think that President Biden shouldn't have pardoned his son, but he also shouldn't have done it based on the idea of selective prosecution, which basically makes the argument that the Justice Department was acting politically, frankly, acting corruptly, which is exactly the argument that Donald Trump has been making for years. It's exactly the argument that we were running our elections against, which is that we were going to protect democracy, not undermine it. And you can see that Donald Trump is already using it in that filing as a precedent.

People have said to me, Michael, how naive. You know, don't you know that Donald Trump would have done this anyway? Of course, but now we have lost, or at least dramatically reduced, the moral high ground that we have to make the argument that what Trump is -- the case that he's making is without any merit.

YES YES YES.

That, to me, nails it — especially in regards to how Biden’s pardon of his son complicates the Democratic argument to voters going forward.

Start here: Bennet — and many people who comment on this newsletter! — is exactly right that Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter has no real material effect on what Trump will do in a 2nd term at the Department of Justice.

As has been made clear by his initial picks — Matt Gaetz for Attorney General! Kash Patel for FBI Director! — Trump is absolutely committed to using the DOJ as his personal plaything.

It’s not as though Biden pardoned Hunter and Trump, all of a sudden, was like: This is the opening I have been waiting for! Finally I can do what I want!

This was always coming. Whether Biden pardoned his son or not.

Which, to hear plenty of Democrats tell it, is the point. The only way to beat Trump (and Trumpism) in the long run is to get down and dirty with him. The whole Michele Obama when-they-go-low-we-go-high thing worked in a pre-Trump world but no longer does. Fighting — and winning — by any means necessary is the only path forward.

I think this is a giant strategic mistake — for a bunch of reasons.

First, as I have said many times, when you roll in the, uh, mud, with a pig, you get dirty. And the pig loves it.

Or to quote philosopher-king Bane: “Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!”

The way Trump has won — twice! — is not to run away from his lying and grift but to suggest that ALL politicians do this stuff and he’s the only one who’s honest about it. It’s a remarkable trick. And it works!

The more that you get down and dirty with Trump, the more ammo you give him to say “See, I TOLD you everyone is corrupt!" And the easier you make it for Republicans, who might be a little shaky on supporting all of Trump’s whims, to shrug their shoulders and say “Well, Biden pardoned his son so…..”

Then there’s this: Joe Biden — and Democrats more broadly — ran EXPRESSLY in 2020 on the idea that Trump had denigrated and desecrated the presidency and that only Biden would restore it to its proper place.

Where Trump had put himself over the country, Biden would, in every instance, do the opposite. He gave his “word as a Biden” — and all that.

To just throw that argument away with a single swipe of your pardon pen is stunningly bad politics. It reminds me of when John McCain spent the first 8 months of 2008 making the case that Barack Obama was too inexperienced to be president and then picked Sarah Palin — a remarkably inexperienced pol — as his VP.

Like, what?

My friend

Steve Schmidt

over at

The Warning with Steve Schmidt

put the danger of ceding moral authority well in a post today:

The country is in deep trouble. Deep.

Giving up the high ground is the gravest mistake the weaker force can make in the situation in which Democrats find themselves.

Every Democrat should think carefully about the answer they want to give about Hunter Biden, so that they don’t get tangled in moral equivalencies regarding the coming January 6th pardons and the worst of Trump’s nominations.

The growing calls demanding that the Democrats adopt a politics of malicious cruelty as the answer to Trump, or abandon all or any standards, are asinine.

Always remember: You will NEVER out-Trump Trump. Never go lower. He will always be willing to say and do things no Democratic politician will say or do. He has perfected this game — and you will lose if you try to play it by his rules (or lack thereof).

I truly believe this. It may be a moot point going forward because Trump isn’t going to ever be on the ballot again. But, I also believe that how Democrats conduct themselves and define themselves vis a vis Trump over the next few years will matter hugely in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 race.

Biden, to my mind, has gotten that defining process off on the wrong foot. “Because Trump has/will do it!” is not the basis of a political morality to take to voters. And it never will be.