Hunter Biden, wife Melissa Cohen and son Beau enjoyed a VIP tour of Disneyland with friends in their first public outing since Democrats were trounced in the election.
Baby Beau, 4, and mom Melissa wore matching mouse ears. Beau’s had a Santa hat while Melissa’s sported a red spotted bow.
Hunter, 54, was spotted on the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride with his son and a friend. The trio also hopped on the Peter Pan ride and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
President Joe Biden’s son looked gloom despite the park having the moniker the ‘Happiest Place on Earth.’
It was the first sighting of Hunter since Kamala Harris lost the election. And it comes a month before he’s scheduled to be sentenced on federal charges related to a gun purchase and his taxes.
The family was joined by friends and five Secret Service agents. They enjoyed a private, VIP tour of the amusement park.
They also munched on funnel cake as they watched the Christmas Parade.
Hunter Biden stayed out of the presidential race after his father exited it in late July. He had been one of the strongest voices trying to persuade Joe Biden to stay on as the Democratic nominee.
Now that the election is a settled matter, there are a handful of ‘will he or won’t he’ questions hanging over President Biden’s final days in office.
One that’s been asked repeatedly over the past months is: Will Biden pardon his ne’er-do-well son Hunter over his convictions on federal gun and tax fraud charges?
Both Biden and his spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre have repeatedly denied Hunter will be pardoned by his father.
When asked Thursday – just over 24 hours after the presidential election was called in Trump’s favor – whether Biden has any intention of pardoning his son, Jean-Pierre responded, ‘We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.’
But few observers seem to be buying that answer. Bob Woodward is among the skeptics.
The All the President’s Men journalist last month predicted Biden will indeed pardon the recovering drug-addict first son, who is facing prison time when he’s sentenced for separate federal gun and tax fraud convictions next month.
Woodward, citing reporting he did for his latest book ‘War,’ said ‘ the issue of Hunter Biden is just ripping Joe Biden’s heart out, and it is something he talks about with close friends.’
‘He worries about, where is this going to go? He has said he would not pardon him. There are a couple of trials coming up. Quite frankly, I know enough about Biden I don’t believe that. I think he will pardon his son,’ the longtime Washington Post editor and reporter told The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert.
In June, Hunter Biden was convicted of three felony charges related to his 2018 purchase of a revolver. Then, in September, he pleaded guilty to nine charges in a federal tax case.
President Biden is said to be deeply worried about Hunter relapsing into drug addiction under the pressure of those outcomes.
And Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the president blanket power to pardon any federal crime, something most outgoing presidents do in their final days in office, some controversial, others routine.
Even Trump, who issued a slew of pardons during his four years in office and on his way out the door in January 2021, weighed in on the Hunter Biden pardon issue, with a response that surprised many.
Asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt last month if he would consider pardoning Hunter Biden, Trump said, ‘I wouldn’t take it off the books.
‘See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously, despite what – and Hunter’s a bad boy, there’s no question about it, he’s been a bad boy.
‘But I happen to think it’s very bad for our country,’ Trump said of what he considers politically motivated prosecutions and punishment which he likens to his own experience.
Jeffrey Crouch, a professor at American University who is an expert on the pardon process, noted a president can ‘use the clemency power whenever he would like, and as often as he would like.’
The only real consequence – if Biden opts to give his son a pardon – would be that it becomes a stain on his legacy.
Voters could also punish the Democratic Party at the voting booth in the next election, though there seem to be weightier issues that emerged for the Democrats to contend with in the aftermath of Kamala Harris decisive loss to Trump.
‘The president may also incur consequences come election season when they, or at least, their political party may face punishment from the voters. And, the president always needs to keep their legacy in mind,’ Crouch said.
Other presidents have issued controversial pardons – usually in the final days of their presidency.
In 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon for any crimes he had ‘committed or may have committed’ in the Watergate scandal. This was the first pre-emptive pardon by a president.
In 2001, President Bill Clinton pardoned 140 people on his last day in office including billionaire Marc Rich, who had been a fugitive for decades for fraud related to making illegal oil deals and not paying more than $48 million in taxes.
It resulted in a federal investigation into donations made to the Clintons by Rich’s ex-wife. But the investigation didn’t discover enough evidence to indict Clinton.
Clinton also pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton, who had been convicted of drug charges.
In the last 12 hours of his presidency, Donald Trump pardoned and commuted the sentences of 144 people, including former advisors Stephen Bannon and Roger Stone. He also pardoned Charles Kushner – the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – and the rapper Lil Wayne.
Joe Biden has expressed regret and frustration with his son’s legal cases.
He also said he regretted picking Merrick Garland as his attorney general, Woodward reported in his book ‘War,’ writing the president was angry about the prosecution of his son.
David Weiss, the special counsel who brought both cases against Hunter, said he prosecuted the president’s son to show that nobody ‘is above the law.’
Hunter Biden is scheduled to be sentenced in the Delaware gun case on December 13, and on December 16 in the California tax case.
That is a month after the 2024 election.
Hunter expressed his fear of the ‘end of America’ if Trump is elected president again.
‘A second Donald Trump presidency is potentially the end of America as we’ve known it,’ the president’s son said to Politico in an interview this month.
He said that his greatest worry was ‘losing our democracy to a fascist minority,’ suggesting that he feared the verdict of the electoral college on who should be elected president.
Hunter Biden also accused Trump of ‘lies, fear-mongering and disinformation.’
‘It’s easier to scare people with lies than educate them with the truth. It’s faster. It sticks to your marrow,’ he said.
President Biden could pardon or commute his son’s sentences anytime before he leaves office on January 20, 2025.
Friends of the family have questioned if the president will keep his promise not to pardon given his worries about Hunter’s mental state and the fact that, since he’s not running for a second term, there is essentially no political danger to him.
Additionally, Donald Trump promised to prosecute his political enemies if he wins the election and Hunter would be a top target. A blanket pardon from President Biden would protect his son from any action by Trump.
In the June gun purchase case, jurors found Hunter Biden guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user, and illegally having the gun for 11 days.
Hunter faces up to 25 years in prison although as a first-time offender he would not get anywhere near the maximum, and there’s no guarantee the judge would send him to jail.
In the September tax case, Hunter could face up to 17 years in prison for his crimes, which include tax evasion, filing fraudulent tax returns, and failing to pay taxes. The judge also could impose a hefty fine, perhaps as much as $1.3 million.
The judges in both cases were appointed by President Trump.
Hunter is a first-time offender. He has been sober for years and paid his taxes and fines, although that money was provided by a wealthy friend.
President Biden is known to be torn up about the situation.
Hours after Hunter’s conviction in June in the Delaware gun case, President Biden flew to Wilmington to spend the night with his family before leaving for the G7 summit in Italy.
And he also got a few minutes with his son on the tarmac, hugging him in full view of the cameras.