Some Republicans have seized on President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden to criticize the president of lying after promising he would abide by court rulings, while many defended the president and accused the right of double standards .

Steven Cheung, communications director for President-elect Donald Trump, said Newsweek“The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democratic-controlled Justice Department and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system.”

“This justice system must be repaired and due process restored for all Americans, and that is exactly what President Trump will do when he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people,” Cheung said.

Donald Trump Jr. offered more direct criticism of Biden, writing on the social media platform X: “Everyone knew he would do it. He would only do it if it had no consequences for the electability of Democrats.”

While he did not directly comment on the news, Elon Musk reposted Donald Trump Jr.’s comment.

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley wrote on the social media platform

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio also weighed in

“If that’s the case, then why did Joe Biden pardon Hunter Biden for the very things we inquired about?” Jordan asked.

Political commentator Ben Shapiro criticized the president for his decision to issue the pardon, saying that Biden “has always been a corrupt liar who used his political power to gain family benefits. So of course he pardons Hunter. He had always wanted to pardon Hunter.” Hunter was the bagman.

Shapiro and many other voices on the right have seized on the timeline of Hunter’s pardon, pointing out that it begins before he joins the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Shapiro later released a video in which he attempted to clarify the context of this narrative.

A surprising voice commenting on the pardon is Dr. Parik Patel, father of FBI director candidate Kash Patel. The elder Patel wrote down

Attorney and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley posted several thoughts on the pardon, warning: “Americans may find it harder to understand how a president could repeatedly and forcefully deny that he would issue this pardon while running for re-election.” “

Turley noted that while Biden insisted that the lawsuits against his son were politically motivated, he pardoned Hunter Biden for “ALL crimes that may have been committed,” which is “exactly the type of broad immunity grant that the federal judge opposed in the hearing.” “The previous sweetheart deal fell through.”

“Hunter Biden is hardly the poster boy for a victim of excessive enforcement of federal law,” Turley wrote. “He was given carte blanche to accuse him of being an unregistered agent and the embodiment of influence peddling in Washington.”

Some high-profile figures responded in a more muted and mediocre manner, such as former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who wrote on

Ezra Klein, a popular one New York Times The opinion columnist acknowledged that “it is a terrible policy and a terrible precedent,” but argued that “the Trump team has made it brutally clear that it wants revenge on its enemies, they are obsessed with Hunter in particular, and that would stress the hell out of me if I were his father and could protect him.

Klein also joked about the “Dark Brandon” memes and supported the suggestion that Hunter Biden appear on the meme Joe Rogan experience Podcast.

Political pollster Nate Silver came out harshly for the president, writing on “I’m not sure how much more I can take.”

Silver also urged voters to “reject any Democrat in 2028 who does not reject the pardon within 48 hours.” He also accused the White House of “consistently” lying about Biden’s plan to abide by the court’s decision in the Hunter Biden cases and called Biden “a selfish and senile old man.”

But many on the left simply rolled their eyes at what they saw as a hand-wringing and pardon struggle, noting that not similarly criticizing Trump for appointing apparent family members and friends amounted to another double standard to powerful positions in government.

“We are not accepting complaints about the Hunter Biden pardon unless you have also complained about the pardons of Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and Paul Manafort,” wrote David Corn, DC bureau chief for Mother Jones and MSNBC -Analyst, on X

Juliette Kayyem, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and CNN national security analyst, argued on Maybe Report Why.

Kayyem had previously appeared on CNN on Sunday to discuss the possibility of Biden pardoning his son in light of Patel’s appointment as FBI director and the Patel election.

Progressive commentator and journalist Mehdi Hasan criticized MAGA Republicans for their criticism of Biden, noting: “Yesterday, Trump nominated his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law to be ambassador to France. Today he appoints his daughter Tiffany’s unqualified father-in-law as his senior adviser on Middle Eastern affairs.

“This is Banana Republic stuff from a party obsessed with Hunter Biden,” Hasan wrote on X.

Bakari Sellers, who served in the South Carolina House of Representatives for nearly a decade, argued that Republicans “ran (AND won) by pardoning actual insurrectionists.” Be deterred by a man who pardons his son.”

“Thank God. Forgive Hunter. Trump doesn’t follow any rules. He is abusing the law. He would have pardoned Hunter and called you a coward for not doing it,” Sellers wrote on X.

Popular influencer and young progressive politician Hasan Piker laughed off Nate Silver’s comments about his dislike of pardoning Hunter Biden, quipping that “for this liberal genocide is not a red line – pardoning Hunter Biden is,” referring to the Israeli operations in Gaza. which proved to be a dealbreaker for many progressive voters in the 2024 election.

Political commentator Keith Olbermann argued that Biden didn’t go far enough with his pardon and that he should “pardon everyone else.”

“Every prosecutor, every Biden administration official, every media figure, everyone that Trump will go after. 10,000,000 pardons. At least,” Olbermann wrote on X.

Former Democratic hopeful Qasim Rashid, a human rights lawyer, also argued that his main concern with Biden’s pardon is that “he can’t stop at this” and “commute the death penalty for 40 Americans on federal death row, student debt via EO.” cancel it and force Trump to revive it and protect abortion nationwide through EO. Be brave.