Welcome to the online version of From the political editorial teaman evening newsletter bringing you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the election campaign.

In today’s edition, our reporters delve into President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son — and the part that particularly angers his fellow Democrats. Additionally, senior political editor Mark Murray examines three big polling trends that have defined 2024.

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Some Democrats bristle at Biden’s reasons for the pardon

By Carol E. Lee, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Gary Grumbach and Dareh Gregorian

It’s not just that President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter. It’s the way he did it that angered some fellow Democrats.

According to a White House statement released Sunday evening, the president granted a “full and unconditional pardon” for all crimes that Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed or participated in during the period from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024.” was involved.” .

The pardon came after Biden repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his son’s sentence. And in his statement, Biden said he granted the pardon because his son had been “selectively and unfairly prosecuted.”

That, as Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona said Monday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press Now,” runs counter to years of core policy positioning in the Democratic Party — and the way President-elect Donald Trump and His allies have described his investigations as criminal prosecutions.

“I’m pretty angry because it’s going to be incredibly important that political leaders of both parties stand up for the independence of the Justice Department and resist these attacks that suggest the Justice Department has been politicized and needs to be dismantled. “The FBI needs to be disbanded Stanton said. (See more from Stanton below.)

In response to Biden’s actions, Trump raised the issue of defendants and those convicted of violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as he pushed to overturn the 2020 election results.

“Does the pardon granted by Joe Hunter extend to the J-6 hostages who have been imprisoned for years now? Such an abuse and miscarriage of justice!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Special Counsel David Weiss’ office on Monday appeared to reject Biden’s claim that the prosecution of Hunter Biden was politically motivated, calling such allegations “baseless.” In a court case challenging Hunter Biden’s request to dismiss his tax and fraud lawsuit in California in light of his father’s pardon, Weiss pointed out that a number of judges had already rejected the younger Biden’s claims of vindictive prosecution.

While a handful of members of Congress have spoken out about a pardon so far, one notable group has remained silent – the Democrats, who are seen as early contenders for the presidential nomination in 2028. Watch this space in the future.

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Three big takeaways from the 2024 polls

By Mark Murray

The polls not only signaled that the 2024 presidential election was contested and uncertain, but also revealed the political mood that shaped the contest – and that could continue to shape politics in the future. Here are some of the biggest lessons we learned.

By and large, the polls accurately described an electorate that largely felt the nation was moving in the wrong direction, with an incumbent president, Joe Biden, whose approval rating remained in the low 40s — a historic danger zone for the party , which controls the White House.

As it turns out, the NBC News exit poll found that 73% of voters said they were angry or dissatisfied with the direction of the country, and only 40% approved of Biden’s job performance.

Additionally, the polls have predicted many of the key demographic trends that will ultimately determine the 2024 election, including Trump’s gains among Latino voters.

The NBC News/Telemundo/CNBC Latino Poll was among the polls that showed Trump gaining well before the election. Many polls also recognized early on that Biden and the Democrats have relative problems with young voters, particularly some men, compared to other recent elections.

But the polls, including the NBC News poll, incorrectly overstated the extent of the gender gap when it came to Harris’ support among female voters and Trump’s support among men.

According to the exit poll, Harris won among female voters by 8 points and Trump won among men by 13 points – a 21-point gender gap consistent with recent presidential elections. That was smaller than the gender gap of more than 30 percent found in the NBC News poll.

The most important thing to remember about the gender gap: To see how and where it’s widening, combine it with education and race instead. Harris won white college-educated women by 16 points and Trump won white non-college-educated men by 40 points — a massive 56-point gap between these two different groups.

Read more here →

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That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have any feedback – likes or dislikes – email us at [email protected]

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