President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter is a bombshell for his party’s post-election soul-searching.

Democrats are still sorting through the wreckage of their loss to President-elect Donald Trump last month. Some in the party blame this on a reputation – whether justified or not – as elitists who are out of touch with voters’ everyday concerns and instead make friends with other wealthy and well-connected allies.

Now, after months of vowing he wouldn’t do so and arguing that the justice system treated Trump appropriately, Biden is overturning his son’s allegedly politicized convictions on tax and gun crimes, triggering a warning that the move strengthens the perception that the party does not keep its word and plays by its own rules.

“This literally reinforces the very challenge that Democrats faced in the election: elites talking to elites and convincing each other that they are right. Well, you can’t get more elite than that,” said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and former adviser to Sen. Joe Manchin, IW.Va.

“It’s not about pardoning the son. What about everyone else’s son?” Kofinis added. “When you take such a dramatic action that benefits a single person in your family, you have a responsibility to go out and say why. But you can’t say why because it’s about justice.” The system is rigged because you have repeatedly said for the last four years that it is not rigged. So it’s not rigged for Trump, but it is rigged for your son.

Hunter Biden was convicted of federal gun charges after lying about his drug use on a firearms application and pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges, including three felonies.

The president’s announcement on Sunday evening marked a bang at the end of a holiday weekend. In it, Biden insisted that his son had been “treated differently” after “several of my political opponents in Congress incited them to attack me and oppose my election.”

The pardon is also particularly comprehensive, covering all “offenses against the United States which he committed or may have committed or participated in” from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, beyond the weapons and tax charges out.

Republicans quickly bristled at the move, branding it a tampering with the judiciary, especially after Biden said for months that he would not use his power to intervene in his son’s legal troubles.

“Joe Biden lied from start to finish,” House Speaker James Comer, R-Ky., wrote in a post on “To do everything to avoid responsibility.”

“Today’s pardon is wrong. It proves to the American people that there is a two-tier justice system,” added Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Senate Republican in the next Congress.

Democratic lawmakers were more muted about the pardon late Sunday but were more vocal about their opposition Monday afternoon.

“Democrats should have been in favor of reforming and restricting pardon powers from day one of the Biden presidency. As a father, I sympathize with President Biden, but we must be the party of reform, whether it’s the archaic pardon power, opposition to super PACs or the general public’s war powers,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D- Calif., on X.

“President Biden’s decision to pardon his son was wrong. A president’s family and allies should not receive special treatment. “This was an abuse of power, it undermines trust in our government, and it encourages others to bend justice to their interests,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., added.

Now some party officials warned ABC News that Democrats risk engaging in the same behavior they warned Trump about before his inauguration, making their campaign rhetoric about the integrity of the justice system applicable to only one side of the political divide .

“It’s a bit of a game with (voters),” one Democratic pollster said. “For the average independent voter, the realization that both sides are just playing games with each other, to the extent that any still exist, is none of this rhetoric.”

The White House tried to do damage control on Monday, pinning the blame on Republicans, who will have unified control of Washington starting late next month and who have hammered Hunter Biden for years over his legal troubles and business dealings.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden granted the pardon in part “because it didn’t look like his political opponents were going to give it up.”

“They would continue to take action against his son. He believed in that,” she added, declining to speculate on the political consequences of the move.

“Two things could be true. “You can believe in the Justice Department system, and you could also believe that the process was politically influenced,” she emphasized.

Controversy over the pardon is growing as some Democrats partly blame Biden’s decision to run for re-election as the reason for Harris’ defeat.

While many Democrats expressed sympathy for Biden’s position as a father, they said it was another reason to put the president in the rearview mirror as the party puts together a new playbook for the future – a disconnect that, according to some hoped long-term fallout could be minimized.

“I think the party is already moving so deeply and completely away from him that I don’t know if that will sever ties between Biden and the future Democratic Party any more or less than it already would have been. If “anything, it could speed it up,” a senior Democratic strategist said.

“I think it’s politically stupid,” the person said. “It makes us look bad, and it makes us look like we don’t have the moral high ground, and either we have to admit that to ourselves, or we have to admit to ourselves that we need to stop being so preachy. I think this is bad policy,” but it’s not clear to me what the exact impact will be.

But that doesn’t mean Democrats skeptical of the long-term impact are happy with the move.

Almost all Democrats who spoke to ABC News feared that Biden’s pardon would open the door for Trump to protect people they predicted were unworthy of a pardon. And to head off any lingering consequences of a broader, including theoretical, overhaul, some suggested that vigorous criticism from party leaders could go a long way.

“It won’t eliminate it because Biden is the president of the United States,” the Democratic pollster said. “But if Democrats ever hope to reinvent themselves in a post-Biden future, they must start denouncing Biden now when it is difficult, not in the future when it will be easier.”