The surprise about Joe Biden’s pardon for his son, Hunter, is not that the president issued it after repeatedly declaring he wouldn’t. The shock is that “the big guy” would finally act like a father after decades of ruthlessly using his drug-addled son as the bag man for his grift and step in to protect, rather than leverage, his child. 

This pardon further tarnishes whatever was left of Mr. Biden’s presidential legacy, but it may turn out to be the most respectable thing he has done as a parent in years.

Did the president pardon his son to preserve the integrity of the Biden name? It isn’t likely. Surely by now President Biden understands that he will be remembered for forgetting where he is, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the open border, and inflation. His family is associated with shady business deals, cocaine, leaked diaries and laptops, and a granddaughter who was denied a Christmas stocking on the family hearth. 

There is no proud Biden family legacy to save by wiping away Hunter’s conviction. In fact, the one remaining shred of dignity Joe Biden had left came from the lie that he willingly stepped away from the 2024 race because he is the kind of leader who puts the country before himself. With Hunter’s pardon he lost the ability to make this claim, as well as the façade of nobility he built around it.

It also seems unlikely that the president issued this pardon because he was worried about being prosecuted and jailed for his own criminal behavior. Given his age and physical condition, he could never seriously believe he would see the inside of a prison cell no matter what is uncovered about him over the next four years. 

Joe Biden seems to have issued this pardon out of love for his son. Who knew he had it in him? All his life, the president appears to have put political ambition and greed before his family. With the pardon he reversed the equation. It may not have been a noble act for a commander-in-chief, but it was the only understandable one for a father. Most parents would have done the same. It would have been difficult to admire anyone who didn’t, ideals of justice aside.

If Mr. Biden wants to redeem himself as a leader of any kind, what he can do now is extend his newfound compassion for his own son to the sons and daughters of the many others his administration has locked away. Non-violent Americans who walked through the open doors of the Capitol building on January 6, 2020, still sit in the cells Hunter Biden would have called home were it not for his father’s position. Seventy-five-year-old Paulette Harlow could use a pardon, too. She was sentenced to two years for praying outside of a D.C. abortion clinic. Will Mr. Biden add her to his list? 

It isn’t likely. It took this long for Joe Biden to conjure up the basic human instinct for protection of his own offspring — what chance is there that he has evolved enough to feel that kind of responsibility for others he has hurt? 

Hunter alone will benefit from his father’s repentance for a lifetime of parental failure. American citizens won’t be so lucky, as Joe Biden shows no signs of atonement for his presidential failures.