Joe Biden’s presidency has been marked by one crisis after another. It’s hardly a shock that a plurality of Americans view him as the worst president of their lifetimes. From the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan to the spiraling border crisis, skyrocketing inflation, and a web of scandals, his time in office has left little room for praise. Yet in his final weeks, Biden’s actions raise an unsettling question: Is he deliberately sabotaging what little remains of his legacy?
The president’s recent use of pardon power has brought this question to the forefront. Following the election, Biden pardoned his son Hunter after repeatedly claiming he wouldn’t do so.
Since then, he’s issued an unprecedented number of pardons and commutations for hundreds of federal criminals in moves that some have criticized as hasty and reckless. The most controversial, however, was his commutation of sentences for 37 federal death row inmates — some of whom were convicted of the most heinous crimes imaginable, including child rape and murder.
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Among those benefiting from Biden’s clemency are Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Lexis Roberts in 2010 after killing her mother, Iouri Mikhel, convicted of murdering five immigrants during ransom kidnappings, and Kaboni Savage, a Philadelphia drug dealer responsible for 12 murders, including four children. Also included is James Roane Jr., a Richmond drug dealer involved in 11 murders.
Biden also commuted the death sentence of Jorge Avila-Torrez, a man who sexually assaulted and brutally murdered two young girls, Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, while they were riding their bicycles in a Chicago suburb in 2005. Just four years later, Avila-Torrez went on to strangle 20-year-old naval officer Amanda Snell inside her barracks in Arlington, Virginia.
Biden’s actions over the last 2 weeks on pardons/commutations are indefensible. It’s clear he cares more about violent criminals than victims.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 23, 2024
12 y/o Lexis Roberts witnessed her mom’s execution at the hands of Thomas Sanders before he slit her throat
Biden commuted his sentence pic.twitter.com/zvfFXwoZoX
In announcing the commutations, Biden said he was “guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President.”
The latest commutations have resulted in some fierce backlash. Critics argue it undermines public trust in the justice system and disregards the suffering of victims and their families.
Why would Biden, whose presidency already has a poor reputation, take such a controversial step in his final months? Some suggest it’s a last-ditch attempt to appeal to the far-left wing of his party. I suppose that’s possible. Maybe Biden is making these decisions simply because he just doesn’t care anymore. Personally, I think, just as PJ Media’s Victoria Taft does, that Biden isn’t the one making these decisions. Biden desperately wants a positive legacy and has always framed his presidency as historic, consequential, and positive.
From the very beginning, he has touted his record of nominating people to serve in his administration or the judiciary who check off certain diversity checkboxes. He repeatedly claims to have an unmatched record of job creation even though he’s been fact-checked into oblivion over his claims of creating 14, 15, or 16 million jobs when in reality they were mostly jobs that came back after the COVID shutdowns.
But if Biden was of sound mind and part of the process of deciding to commute these death row sentences, then the only explanation is that he seems intent on sabotaging his own legacy.
Maybe that's his final revenge on the Democratic Party that forced him out of the election because it's who is going to shoulder the burden of his legacy in future elections.
