Biden’s Pardon of Hunter Biden Was Inappropriate, Majority of Voters Say

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President Joe Biden’s decision to go back on his word and issue a presidential pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, prompted a bipartisan backlash in Washington last week, a consensus reflected among the American electorate, a new Morning Consult survey shows.

According to our latest data, 57% of voters say Biden’s pardon of his son was inappropriate, compared with just one-third of voters who view the move as appropriate.

The public’s misgivings about Biden’s lame-duck decision to provide his son relief as he faced sentencing for his conviction in a federal gun case and guilty plea on tax charges earned far stronger reactions from the electorate this year compared to when we tested a range of pardons by Donald Trump at the end of his first term in 2021. This was especially true when comparing responses from the two presidents’ respective voter bases, though a majority of Democrats nonetheless say Biden’s decision was above board.

Biden’s decision to pardon his son got roughly twice the criticism from Democrats than Trump’s pardons for former advisers Steve Bannon and Paul Manafort did among Republicans almost four years ago, and the disparity was even larger regarding Trump’s pardon of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

We observed a similar dynamic in a 2020 survey that asked voters if it would be appropriate for Trump to pardon members of his family or attorney Rudy Giuliani, famous at the time for pushing Trump’s false claims about election fraud that year. Among the larger electorate, roughly a quarter or more expressed no views about the potential pardons at the time, with even more Republicans expressing that sentiment. 

The bottom line

Biden has largely stopped making news, which makes his pardon of Hunter among the most prominent actions he’s taken since his party lost the 2024 election. Voters were far more likely to hear a lot about his pardon of his son (48%) than Trump’s pardons of Bannon (35%) or Manafort and Roger Stone (27%) back in 2021 as the public focused more on fallout from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Biden’s move adds insult to injuries his image has experienced over the past several months, and as the negative response from a number of prominent Democrats indicates, it also undermines allegations of corruption toward Trump and his allies. 

Democrats may be able to rely on the pending Trump return to power — and the lengths he’s known to stretch his own authority — to leave the Hunter Biden pardon, and the political baggage he brought the party, behind them. But as they look to make their way out of the political wilderness, fighting the perception that the Trump era represents a continuation of politics as usual now looks a little harder.