The announcement is a complete turnaround from the president's earlier promises to respect the verdict. That it comes now is likely linked to the fact that the Democrats lost the election in November, according to Dennis Goldford, who is a professor emeritus at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
That the Trump camp will criticize the decision is self-evident, he says.
But the Republicans do not have much credibility in this matter, considering Trump's actions.
Goldford points out, among other things, that Trump himself approved controversial pardons during his first term, including Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of daughter Ivanka Trump.
Points to the Constitution
He also compares Biden's turnaround with his successor's stance on the controversial, ultra-conservative plan Project 2025.
Trump claimed that he did not know anything about Project 2025. Despite this, we now see that several of those he appointed to his administration were involved in developing this plan. Biden can simply say that he changed his mind, says Goldford.
That the decision could be seen as a way to practically undermine the courts' independent decision-making, he does not agree with.
This is how the power to pardon works, it overrides the ordinary legal process, something that was obviously considered important when the Constitution was written.
When it comes to parallels in American political history, Dennis Goldford mentions President Gerald Ford's controversial decision in 1974 to pardon Richard Nixon, who resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
"Not a politician"
The political science professor, however, sees a crucial difference between the two cases.
Hunter Biden is not a politician, and the case does not concern politics, it is instead about personal shortcomings.
How do you think this will affect the view of Biden's presidency?
Very little. The main accusation against Biden, at least for now, is that he did not step down in time and that he should have announced his resignation one or two years earlier than he did.
In relation to that, I would say that the pardon is a much smaller matter when it comes to his political legacy.
