Retrospect
Retrospect
Presidential Pardon Of Hunter Biden | Retrospect Ep.166
In this week’s episode we discussed the breaking news of President Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, in a move that has sparked significant political debate. We examine the implications of the pardon, and what it could mean for the Biden family's future and the broader political landscape.
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presidential pardon, Hunter Biden, federal crimes, Biden family, political implications, Trump pardons, FBI reform, gun rights, American dream, Hunter Biden pardon, Joe Biden pardons son, Hunter Biden tax charges, Hunter Biden gun charges, Hunter Biden investigation, Thanksgiving leftovers, culinary school, spatchcock turkey, chocolate chip cookies, Guinness preference, cold duck wine,
Ian
Ian, welcome to the retrospect podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from their generations perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Jason.
Jason
Hello, everyone
Ian
and Stoney,
Stoney
Hello.
Ian
How's it going, guys and
Stoney
everybody survived Thanksgiving? How many pounds did you put on?
Jason
I ate a lot. You know, you know, Turkey with all the with all the trimmings. I love pumpkin pie. Yeah, plenty of that. And pumpkinpumpkin pie was the subject of our last episode. What are one of the pumpkin pie? Yep.
And
Stoney
how many pieces Did you eat
Jason
a pie?
Stoney
A whole pie? Yeah. Ate a whole pie. Wow.
Jason
Okay, the whole pie.
Stoney
Okay, wow. And one sitting?
Jason
Oh, no.
Stoney
Okay, that's good. Not
Jason
one sitting.
I don't have that much room
two sittings?
I mean, I went to my, my girlfriend's family, and we did something there, and then we then went to my, my parents and and, you know, had Thanksgiving. They had already started. So, you know, when we got there, most people left,
Stoney
oh, wow,
Jason
okay. And so we were able to just eat whatever the leftovers were, yeah, and believe me, it was still plenty leftover after that. So then the next day, you know, went back there for lunch and had that, and this past weekend, we went to a little downtown restaurant called Cecilia's Creole bistro in downtown, Baton Rouge, okay, and I had been there before, very good. If you love old fashions, they have a fig, okay, a fig infused old fashioned sounds fun, really, which is really good. Kind
Stoney
of makes me wish I had my smell and taste buds back now since the accident, because I would enjoy that. I mean,
Jason
I love that fig infused old fashioned from there. So we had drinks and we had some food. And so it was a good night. And my
Ian
brother is a, he went to culinary school for a while, and he also, he's the, I would say, he's more the cook of the family than anyone else. And so he was able to make the made the turkey, and it was really, really, really good, baked or fried. He baked it okay? He had, like, Yeah, he'd like, a whole special thing. He
Jason
my mother's more is partial to bake than fried turkey, even though I love fried turkey.
Stoney
Oh yeah, fried turkey is good. Um, I like to spatchcock the turkey. Now, if I'm gonna bake it or grow on, put it on the smoker, I'm gonna spatchcock it. And what that does is, is it flattens it out and evens it out so it cooks a little bit more evenly, right? And so the breast doesn't dry out before the dark meat does, and it just kind of gives you an even cook of it. And it's pretty interesting, if you want to Google that spatchcock Turkey, and you can do chickens too, like that, but it's just a little bit easier to do the turkey, right? And it's pretty fantastic, because you're putting this, you know, you're you can poke holes in the skin and salt it a little bit, and that'll help harden the skin. But then you're pulling the skin away from the meat too, and putting butter on the inside between the skin and the meat, little garlic butter or something. Yeah.
Ian
And I went through some butter.
Stoney
I'll tell you what, when you were making our brown sugar, no, no, no, no. Chocolate chip cookie. I
Ian
mean, I do go through some butter with that as well. But no for the for all the dinner, I made all the my brother made the turkey, and then I made all the side, side dishes, side pieces. Did
Stoney
it include chocolate chip cookies?
Ian
No, no. Really making
Stoney
more. See, he made some.
Ian
I made some. I made one. I made one batch of one. I told you guys about it because it was, it was I started it after we recorded, and that was for a special group that I'm a part of. They they had never had them before. So I'm trying to, I'm trying to get the word out there more towards people who haven't had them yet.
Jason
But I'm gonna charge you some money.
Ian
I need to, I need to what you I have to get people. I have to get you to get them hooked first, and then that's how you get them. But
Stoney
after you get them hooked, hello, us to keep them supplied too, you know.
Ian
And I haven't had the time. It takes time to make those, but I will, trust me, before the season's over, I'll make a few more batches, I believe, and you will have some, I promise.
Jason
Do you have anything to drink while you're making these cookies? Do you have like, a little thing you like to sip on sometimes?
Ian
Yeah, so I am a big fan of Guinness. I like Guinness. It's just a it's, I like darker beer, all like, anyways, but for some reason, I always go back to just a tried and true Guinness. Okay? I usually that, or depending on if I have some opened or not already, I'm also a big champagne guy. I like champagne. If I have some, like we have, I think I have some Prosecco in the fridge from the over the past few parties we've had. So if I was to make some, I would pour below that. It would be a little nice. It.
Jason
But every Thanksgiving, it's kind of tradition that we was it the drink cold duck. Yeah,
Ian
I haven't had that yet. Still. I went to
Jason
the, you know, able to find, find some. It's kind of tough to find for whatever reason. It's just not, not everybody carries it. But I found some. And so every Thanksgiving is kind of responsible to bring the cold there. So
Ian
what? So what is cold duck again? Is it like it's a
Jason
sparkling wine? Okay? To champagne, basically,
Ian
Andre Okay, yeah, yeah, interesting.
Jason
Just for whatever reason, stores will carry a lot of the other Andre just the regular old duck. Can't find it very much interesting. Yeah,
Stoney
maybe y'all aren't the only family tradition that uses it at this time, right? Yeah,
Jason
I think I've seen some people. I mean, some years back, I dated a girl and her family mixed cold duck with something else and created a punch. Oh, okay, which was really good, too. I think it was cold duck and sprite. Okay, I'm not mistaken, not bad. And they made it at Christmas time. But I've always just at Thanksgiving, as we have it, we don't really drink it at Christmas, but at Thanksgiving, we do interesting. So, yeah, so it was a great, really, a good four days that my girlfriend was in town and I went early voted,
Ian
yeah, there's a couple of there's a couple of wines I wanted to get, but I ran out of time with the way, the way my work week was, I was getting ready for all the stuff in December, right, ramping up. And so I that last the way, how December falls now it's like, the beginning of the work week is like at the top of December. And so, like, so last week was, like, just trying to get all my stuff done, and I didn't get a chance to go. But there's a few, like, bottles of wine, a few like brands of wine that I haven't had a chance to try yet, that I want
Jason
to but it's just, it's not an expensive, yeah, you know, it's not an expensive, you know, brand. I'm trying
Ian
to get into some Italian wines. There's a few I've heard some good things about, and I've had
Stoney
a lot of Well, that'll mostly be your red wines, of course.
Ian
And I like a good red wine, so
Stoney
that's my favorite. I'm not a really white wine person. Had to be very specific about it, but yeah, I'm more of a red wine person. Cool.
Ian
Well, we're getting into today?
Stoney
Wow. Well, we had another subject for today, yeah, and I know Jason did some preparation, and I had done some preparation and
Ian
and that episode is still happening, by the way, that's right, what was it? It's gonna be
Stoney
a good one. It's a general discussion on secret societies.
Jason
It should be interesting, believe it or not, someone had introduced this topic, you know, to me, saying this may be something I want to talk about. So, believe me, to that person who suggested this, that it's coming, that's a can of worms. Yeah, it's gonna be a, I mean, you can really go down a lot of rabbit holes with that episode, but we're gonna keep it kind of general. Yeah, I think that's why
Stoney
we wanted to kind of do just a general discussion and kind of lay the groundwork, right, more in depth, exact stuff in the future. Yep, right, so, but we're gonna have to change that today. So what happened? Because the events of last night with the Biden crime family protecting their criminal activities, Joe Biden has shown his full hypocrisy, and has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden.
And when I was looking at it, and it was a full and unconditional pardon, really, and that that I'll get into that in just a second. But when I was looking on the internet about this, a lot of the younger people were going, well, what is a presidential pardon? So the US Constitution decrees that a president has broad power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. Okay, so in this case, the President's full and unconditional pardon is unusually sweeping because it doesn't just cover one act or two acts. It covers any potential federal crimes that Hunter Biden may have committed during the time of 10 years, from January 2014 to December 2024 Wow, so it's a broad. A stroke, and that this period takes in Hunter Biden's tax and gun offenses dates back to when his father was vice president, and supposedly using his father's influence to do some things and so while this pardon represents legal forgiveness and ends any further punishment and restores the rights of said Biden Hunter, Biden, which includes the right to vote and run for public office,
Jason
yeah, it went back to it went back all the way to the time when Hunter was involved with Burisma, Burisma holdings, which is a Ukrainian gas company,
Stoney
but not only that, so it predates actually, not only that, but that's also the time when the CIA was Taking over some of the activities in the Ukraine and Hunter Biden's investment portfolios included the laboratory that was looking for the Coronavirus. How many years before COVID And so it completely encompasses all of these activities. Well,
Jason
I'm gonna read out to to our listeners what the actual full pardon said. This is the exact quote, just what came down from
Stoney
let me throw this out there, what this is, what he faced, 25 years in prison for the gun case and 17 years in prison for the tax cases. And this is what this pardon fixes, right? So
Jason
this is the actual pardon. This is what the actual official statement is. He goes today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter, from the day I took office. I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision making, and I kept my word, even as I watched my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted without aggravating factors like use in a crime multiple purchases or buying a weapon as a straw purchasers, people have almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filed out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties are typically given non criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in this case come about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and impose my election, then a carefully negotiated plea deal agreed to by the Department of Justice unraveled in the courtroom, with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter's case. No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's case can reach any other conclusion. Then Hunter was singled out only because he was my son, and that is wrong. There have been an effort. There has been an effort to break Hunter, which has been five and a half years sober, even the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution in trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me, and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough. For my entire career, I followed a very simple principle, just tell the American people the truth, they'll be fair minded. Here's the truth. I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe, believe raw politics has infected this process, and it led to a miscarriage of justice, and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this conclusion. Signed Joseph R Biden Jr, President United States of America, so here we are.
Ian
I just feels messy. I feel like you should be allowed to do something like that, but I understand, after
Stoney
hearing that, I need to take a shower. Yeah, you know, yeah.
Jason
Look, I'm, I'm as much as I I can. I understand him doing that I really do, and I'm not one, and to me, this goes back to a very deeper problem we have in this country because of what we all witness. With Trump and the law fair that was used against him, and, and, and unfortunately, we live in a world with tit for tat. And so the Trump allies basically said, Okay, you want to play this game. We're gonna, we're gonna attack. We're gonna attack you. Yeah, and so do I believe that if, if these charges would have been used against any other person, if it wasn't Hunter Biden, probably not,
Stoney
well, but you say that, but then a lot of these things come about because the laptop disappeared, and the only way to get the laptop to the public was to have a court order for it, and these were tools to get that laptop. Now what this opens up is is now the Biden crime family judicial system, the weaponized FBI, can now destroy that laptop, yep. And now we won't know the truth of what was ever on that laptop. Thing
Jason
is, and things you'll never, you'll never know, they will make that thing disappear and
Stoney
but that's the minute he signed that it disappeared. It got destroyed. That
Jason
That, to me, is what the problem is, though, is we have got to stop this, because I don't like the guy in office. I'm going to investigate them to hear the kingdom come. We have got to get to a point in this country like, if that's the president, that's the president, let him do the job, and we'll have an election in four years, and we'll see about somebody else, if, if that's the will of the people, but this bit of going there and making these people's lives miserable, because I don't like them politically, it's just got to come to an end. We have to stop this. And I look, I was against this idea of, I would have been in favor of of Trump pardoning all this and in this charade of what we think is justice, and it's just not We've got to stop this of of doing these things. And I look, I know, well, I'm not naive in this. I look, I agree the laptop issue. I do believe Hunter was compromised. I believe Biden was compromised. Beyond
Stoney
compromise, Hunter Biden was using his dad's position as president and vice president.
Jason
What would family, though, would not do that, really,
Stoney
to the extent that they did. He wasn't just saying, Hey, get me out of this ticket, because my dad is the president. Okay? He's talking billions and billions and billions of dollars, right? I laundered. I
Jason
agree with that. I'm not saying it's right, but I do know that people are going to take advantage of if my daddy is the president united states, if this is a means for me to get rich, guess what? They're going to use it now to the extent that what he was doing it, I believe he was pushing it beyond the envelope here. So I'm very a part of me understands Joe Biden doing that as a daddy is protecting his son, because look, at the end of the day, blood is thicker than water.
Stoney
Joe Biden's not smart enough or has enough cognitive skills to do this. You can tell from the letter that you just read that was not Joe Biden. No, okay, that was somebody else. What he's doing it is, is he's sticking it to the establishment, and what he really should have done was go ahead and pardon his son, and then turn around and really stick it to the establishment and go ahead and pardon Donald Trump too, because they were both subject to the same thing, right? Because if you're going to do it for one, do it for both,
Jason
right? No, I agree. If no, he wants
Stoney
to stick it to the establishment because of what they did to him by, you know, not letting him run again, go ahead and stick it to the establishment in full, right?
Jason
I agree with that. To me, if you really want to take the high road, Joe Biden should at the same time say, Look, we have to end this Yes. And because of this, I am pardoning Trump of any and all wrongdoings because
Stoney
we did the same thing to him exactly it was done to my son. This ends, yes, he actually could go down in history if he had. He done that of being Grace. Of being gracious and doing something right, exactly,
Jason
and, oh, I
Stoney
agree 100%
Jason
we unfortunately, I think the handlers would never going to do that. No. I mean, well, I mean, look at the case in New York. They've kind of indefinitely.
Stoney
Well, some of them have been withdrawn. Some of them are the federal
Jason
the federal stuff, the state level stuff is, is where I think, well, last time I read the judge had indefinitely postponed sentencing.
Stoney
Yeah, that Jack. What's his name? Jack, whatever. Jack Smith. Jack Smith. He knows his ass is grass come January the 21st right? So he's, he's pulling everything out.
Jason
I look at everybody throughout the 34 felony charges against Donald Trump said, What exactly was he really charged with, and if it was anybody not named Donald Trump, those cases would have never been gone.
Stoney
Everybody in America that has sold a house or sold a business has done exactly the same thing that Donald Trump has. If you go and you know, your house is estimated value is $150,000 you're gonna turn around and value it out, you know, I want $185,000 from my house, right? Because you're gonna let somebody talk you down a little bit. You're gonna hope that it's a little bit higher than the appraised value, okay? And that's why so many businessmen were leaving and getting ready to leave New York, because they've all done the same thing. That's what they do. You evaluate your stuff a little bit higher. Go get a loan or go sell it for this. Donald Trump never not paid back a loan. Every loan he got for his everything
Jason
was sufficient, was handled. Yes, nobody was out of any money.
Stoney
There was no victim. So that's, that's the that's what can you have a crime with no victim? That's
Jason
what I'm saying, is this stuff has got to just stop. It has to stop. And as I said, I agree, the hunter, the laptop, stuff that should have been brought to light, you know, if you were compromised and you're benefiting from this illegal and considering we're having this ongoing deal in Ukraine right now, you know, or a lot of taxpayer dollars are being spent in this foreign country, Yeah, I think that should have been brought to light. But as a father, I understand a father's wanting to pardon his son. That's
Ian
why, that's why I get that a second ago, I was like, I feel like it should, this shouldn't be allowed, because that is that feels, that feels like it feels wrong, that like obviously, like, if you are the president united states, obviously, you want to take care of children. But like, in a situation like that, I feel like there should be some rules in place where it's like, well, there's a lot of there's a lot of things against Hunter Biden right now. And I don't think that he, I don't say he's immune to being, you know,
Jason
well,
Ian
but it feels, I don't know. It's, he's
Jason
he's out, he's unclear. Now, yeah, you don't have to worry about it. I know,
Stoney
or anything which he did or may have done, which in a 10 year period, which I disagree with that that's if he wanted to pardon him for the gun and the taxes, fine, yeah, but he did it for a, just this huge, broad range of 10 years for what he may or may not have done. That is not a pardon.
Jason
You have to go back to. You'd have to go back to Gerald Ford, pardoning Richard Nixon. Like
Ian
I said, any other something that broad, in any other context like I think I could, I could be convinced. But the fact that it's a father to his son doing that, that's from like, Okay, now we're starting, I feel like there should be some regulations in place for that. That feels a bit too free, unfortunate because that, because now it's like, it opens up the possibility of like, well, I mean, exactly. I can pardon anybody in my family. Well, I
Jason
think fundamentally, it's now because of this, I think the whole you've set a precedent. Now they've set
Stoney
a number of precedents. Now, okay with, you know, you know, trying to put Trump in jail now this, how many precedents does the Biden crime family want to set before he can leave office?
Jason
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there have been other presidential pardons. I mean, you know,
Stoney
the sad thing about this is, you know, we, the American people, don't trust the government as it is something like this is going to just scream distrust. This is just you cannot be trusted. You cannot be believed. You never tell the truth. How far is this going to hurt the American people in their trust of their government? That's what I'm thinking.
Jason
Well, I'm looking at this little this little statement, Professor. Professor John crouch from American University told CBS that if presidents from both political parties feel free to abuse clemency without consequence, the pardon power becomes less of a tool of grace and more of a political instrument. It's kind of ultimately, that's what it was designed
Stoney
for. Grace,
Jason
for grace and but I mean, they've been others, though not the they're not as expansive as the one that has just been issued by President Biden Bill Clinton, pardon or Roger Clinton, you know, for the cocaine charges, if I recall back in 2001 was last day of office. And also part Trump pardoned Charles Kushner before he left office, which is his son in law's father of tax charges. So but those parts were very specific, very specific. Yes, it was not this kind of broad. Because, which, to me, the idea that you would say crimes he may have, that's what I mean. That to me, it's like, okay, well, if all the talk was he never did anything,
Ian
yeah, why?
Jason
Why you, basically,
Stoney
what you're saying is, okay, all you conspiracy theorist, everything you said he did, yeah, he didn't do it, but you can't, you know, even if you prove it now, you can't do nothing about
Ian
right? Exactly, the thing is, from the situation I'm coming from is like you're saying before I can understand a son of a father pardoning his son. But this letter we just read is talking about how, like it's it felt unfair. It felt like it was all one sided. It was all this. The letter was talking about all this stuff, about how, you know, I hope that people can understand my decision, all this kind of stuff. And again, like Stoney was saying, I can understand that if it's coming from a place of like Biden was to pardon select things that may have had the like the conflated stuff. But once you start going down the list of in a 10 year period, crimes that have committed or may have committed, now I'm like, Okay, now you're just trying to cover that feels you're covering your bases. That's what they're doing. I just it seems like a like, I don't want to be mean, but it's coming across as a father trying to, like, trying to protect his, you know, like his addict. But basically, what
Stoney
they're doing is paying off. Is now they're, they're reinforcing the Republicans and Donald Trump, and they are completely, almost, in a way, the Democratic Party is split two right now because of the failure of Kamala Harris to win the presidency after, you know, spending over any $1.5 billion and now $30 million in debt. And remember, this is the lady who said she was going to fix our economy, okay? And she's $30 million in debt on her campaign. But also, instead of, you know, they keep pushing their policies and things like that, now he's going to end his tenure like this on something like this. So instead of talking about, you know, their policies and what they've done, how hard is this going to hit the Democratic Party now? Because now they can't talk about policies. Now they can only talk about this. It's going to be hard to get your younger people to believe in you now, because your transparency is gone, the belief in the system is gone. The old people already don't believe in them. Now you're you're but remember, we talked about this in one of the episodes about, you know, how much younger the younger people voted for Donald Trump because they were so disenfranchised with the Democratic Party? How much more of a split is that going to cost now? Because people really aren't going to believe. Remember, the Democratic Party was the champion, supposedly, of ethics and transparency and things like that. Now you just thrown that out the window. It's gone his last act as President. And I actually think there's going to be one more act. I think there's going to be one more act. Would you think? I think he's going to walk away and make Kamala Harris the president for 20 days.
Ian
Why is that? Or what do
Stoney
you stick it to the system?
Jason
Well, I mean, there's, there's no doubt, from what I've been able to see is there's a lot of of anger, I think, in the Biden family, toward the National Democratic Party, yes, how that whole thing was handled, you know, it's, it's, you know, I don't know the Democratic Party is in disarray right now, because I, I think that they've owned four. Fortunately, they have gone so far left in so many of their policies that many of their core constituencies that once made at the Democratic Party no longer even identify with them anymore. I mean, it's, it's a shame that what but party has turned into in many ways, you know not that the Republican Party is perfect, because, believe me, it's got its own faults too. But I think most people would look at the two parties and go, what party seems to be more have more common sense thinking, well, think about this. Is Republicans right now.
Stoney
He's pushing the drain the swamp thing. He's pushing, you know, stop these elites from protecting themselves. Donald Trump doesn't belong to any military industrial complex. He doesn't belong to any of these things. And he's saying, Let's drain the swamp. Let's, let's clear some, you know, the elite protecting their own. So now he's going to be resonating with his populist base and beyond, because this gives him ammo in his gun. You know, in the political game, when you have two people in a duel, basically, that's the Democrat Party and the Republican Party both have a gun. Neither one of them have bullets for that gun. The only time you do something like this, pardon, puts the bullet in the other guy's gun, right? And how far are they going to be able to spend this, you know, with elections coming up in a couple of you know, what, another two years for more seats and Congress, you got the congressional election coming up, well, how much are they going to be able to push and use this to help drain the swamp, so to speak, because right now, your Democrat Party is already split. How much further they going to be able to use something like this to split it even further?
Jason
Well, it's so funny the I guess it wouldn't be funny, but talking about this part in the habits that the language mirrors the language in Ford's pardon of Nixon, which did not merely cover the Watergate scandal, but extended to all offenses against the United States that Nixon has committed or may have committed Between January 20, 1969 and August 9, 1974 the exact span of the Nixon presidency. Wow. So I guarantee they looked at that bad pardon back then. And basically, you know, we're going to copy that and use the same exact thing. So yeah, we are, we are, but you know, this doesn't surprise me. No, we've, unfortunately, we've, we've, we've allowed our politics to, just to go so far awry where politics is meant to benefit the well being of the country, and it's down, basically just been warped into just a tribal thing that only benefits a few people, and, and, and I hope, my hope that is this, hopefully with Trump not running again, that we might be past some of this acrimony, I guess, would be the right, right term I'm looking for that exists in our politics right now, in we can just simply have an election. Whoever gets elected, elected, and they govern for their four years until there's another election. And you can bring up all the you know, why? The reason this person's a terrible candidate, or this terrible or this person's a good candidate, or whatever the case may be, that we can get back to at least some semblance of that, but I don't know. I'm not going to hold my breath. Oh, but
Stoney
you also have to think about this too. This is not just a pardon for Hunter Biden, but this is a pardon for Joe Biden. Also okay, because now you're shielding, shielding Joe Biden, of course, from okay, because if you can't go after Hunter Biden, for him doing these things, and Joe Biden, what was the thing a if you don't get rid of that guy going after my son in the Ukraine, I'm not gonna give you this billion dollars here. Well, that kind of wipes that slate clean too. So Joe Biden has effectively pardoned two people in this one one stroke of indirectly, he's pardoned himself. Because now What? What? What you gonna go after him with, right? So he's basically kind of done that. I know it, you got to look at it, but that's exactly what he's done. You
Ian
ready for a conspiracy time? Yeah, what if I'm just, I don't know any of the details of all this, but what if, unless. Biden was like scapegoating his son and having his son, like, do all this, like dirty work for him, just to inevitably pardon him anyway. So now all this, like secret, all these like bad things that his son was doing is actually him. Was all like just Joe Biden doing it vicariously though, I
Stoney
actually believe that that's not a conspiracy theory. That's actually exactly what was happening over here to do this, and I know this is going to be a way that we can, we can launder, yeah, you know, three or $400 billion back to, you know, some of the and you can look at the list, and it's not just Democrat, but it's Democrat and Republican people who some of this money laundering has come back from Ukraine to hundreds of millions of dollars to US politicians.
Jason
Well, unfortunately, I think you know, for the and that started with breeze. Unfortunately for those politicians that have been benefiting from the arrangement with United States and Ukraine, that's going to end. That's the 21st that's fixing to come to an end. So I think people are trying to figure out what their next moves are. But you know, as I said, people, I'd be very curious when Trump comes in those when talk of Trump, pardoning all the January Sixers.
Stoney
Well, this gives him fuel to be able to do that.
Jason
Yeah. Now to me, those people have been languishing in jails and prisons that were not even having trial dates, right? Which is, which is a joke, and some of those people that they arrested for doing that, to me, is a miscarriage of justice. So hopefully, I hope they pardon everybody involved in that. I wouldn't be surprised if he pardoned Steve Bannon. You know, we know Steve. Steve Bannon got, was, was sentenced for, I believe, for a for obstruction or contempt. He wasn't going to release something, and he got sent to prison for for that, right? So, but he's been released, and I'm hoping that that President Trump will pardon all this, and hopefully we can move forward and actually try to make America great again. Which means we got to focus on real, important issues. We got to focus on on getting the economy rolling again. We have to get some critical manufacturing back to the United States. The idea that I'm buying my medicine and everything is coming from China doesn't bring me make me feel good. I agree, considering that, you know, a lot of our military is funded with manufacturing that comes from China. I think we need to get back on to some basic common sense stuff. I'm glad that the abortion issue now is no longer a national issue, and, and, and let people fight that out in their own states. That's right. And be don't should be in the first exactly where it needs to be and not be in that. To me, I'm a firm believer that the United States needs to focus on those things that the original founders said that the federal government was responsible for which
Stoney
did not include the United Nations, which did not include going to wars, which did not include saying our money anywhere else, if you follow the original Constitution, none of this stuff that we're going on. Here's a fact for the American people. I don't know if you remember this or not, this country was started on a two cent tax on a breakfast beverage. Well, okay, and now, if you can be in two wars, you're taxing your people too much.
Jason
You know, Trump talked about, and it kind of raised a lot of eyebrows about the possibility of of the United States possibly, possibly moving away from an income tax? Oh, I completely agree with that. And this country was funded upon tariffs back in its early Industrial Revolution. Yes, time and it had plenty of money. And so, you know, it'd be very interesting to see how the, how, what that, how that discussion kind of evolves. Well,
Stoney
think about this. Think about this. You got dodge coming up, okay, Department of government efficiency, that's coming. What do you think is going to happen to those 87,000 plus armed IRS agents that they just hired? They're done bye, bye, because they didn't arm those agents to go outside of the United States and do anything. Did they they hired those agents to come. After American citizens. I believe I saw a statistic that the IRS bought more ammunition last year than Homeland Security. What are they gearing up for? What are they getting ready for? What are they gonna go after James Brown at four o'clock in the morning and pull him out of his house in his underwear. Is that what we're expecting to happen to us? Now, you know, hey, the Pentagon has failed seven audits in a row, but they can tell me that I owe them $37.62 they've lost how many billions of dollars, and they're going to come after us. I'm I want to see what dodge is going to do. I can't wait to see I really hope that they use every possibility to trim the fat on this government. They need to do that, and they can start by stop spending money outside the United States of America.
Jason
Well, I just, I think if, if, if the pardoning gets us past all this mess that we've been in since 2016 2015 2016 I I'm all for it. I'm hoping when Trump does come in and you know it's coming, he starts pardoning people that you know the other side doesn't like, right? Yep, you know. I'm hoping that to say, look, we have to get past all this. As long as you leave this Festering Wound, it's never going to go away. We have to end this. So my hope is that these pardons actually kind of get us back to neutral again, and hopefully we'll we can move forward as a country and, and we'll see. Yeah, you know, as I said, not holding my breath. I just think maybe we've we, in some sense, maybe we've crossed the Rubicon and, and we've gone too far, and maybe this is just the way it's going to be from now on until it eventually the money eventually runs out, and then we're going to be in a mess. There's a lot of issues going on that we need help. You know, we've got to get things. We have to get people that will get it to a point where people believe in the American dream? Yes, they have to. We have to get back to this. And unfortunately, there are forces that are keeping us divided and keeping us distracted from really the solving of real problems in this country. And I'm hoping that maybe we'll, we'll get past others. But you know, at same time, I've been watching clips of his press secretary. No, no, we're never gonna, we're never gonna pardon under Biden, the President supports the, you know? I mean, here was, and this is what I'm talking about. This was a case where he was found guilty by a jury of his peers, right? So it's not like it was some, you know, he was just charged and he was languishing in some jail somewhere, waiting he had been the evidence was heard, and a jury of peers thought that he was guilty. So in many ways, what they said about Donald Trump in a regarding the other all the indictments that were leveled against him. So, you know, I just think we need to move on past this. I really do
Stoney
well. You said something a second ago that these things happen to hide things. What are they hiding with this? We're paying attention so much to this Hunter, Biden horse hockey. What's really happening in the background? Well, we're paying attention to this so hot and heavy.
Jason
Well, I mean, I personally think right now, the biggest money laundering situation right now is going on in Ukraine. So anything they have to cover their tracks, because they know the trains coming to an end, you know. So we have to close off any loopholes that could possibly expose us to this. And so it's just what it is may not. Uh, you know, I said a part of me understands it. That was my son, right? I would feel like I can't leave my son to the fate of my political enemies, because they're gonna probably go after him. Because I believe with the nomination of of Kosh Patel as FBI director, part of the reason that that plea deal, I think, fell apart was because of part of the reason was because the the new incoming, or the the nominated cost Patel was somewhat against that, that that plea deal. So I think knowing the kind of person Kosh Patel is and what kind of reforms he's going to make to the FBI, I think they're basically saying, You know what, we have to do this because we don't know what we're going to get with Kosh Patel as FBI director. And I'm not saying I'm against cosh Patel, or for Kosh Patel, I do know he's a Trump loyalist, and there was some issue with him beforehand that he tried to expose some things in the FBI that I believe got him ousted, or something to that effect, there was some fallout on his part. So, but, you know, we all see Now Trump is going to be a gonna shake things up, and some of these nominees are, are gonna be, are quite radical, and what a lot of these people are used to. So, you know, my hope is, is the the new ATF director needs is coming in needs to basically make, I'm of a personal opinion, the whole National Firearms Act needs to be revisited as something that I don't believe it's constitutional. The
Stoney
ATF is not constitutional. This is just a bunch of non elected people swinging around some cojones, thinking they're swinging around some cojones trying to stop the All it is is another political weapon for the wrong people, and it's being abused right now. Well, that's
Jason
what I'm saying. They just need to do away with the whole NFA, I mean going all the back, all the way back to 1934 I think the way they justified getting that bill passed was, you know, of course, during the mob days, and you know, the tommy guns and, you know, and all that stuff that at law would be looked At. And to me, I just would rather just, you know, if not that, I mean, just go back to prior to 1986 which I thought was how that was done. Was, was kind of sneaky, but that's you know, me as a gun person and gun rights, I think some of these things are a little expansive and a little constraining, that all it does is hurt law abiding people and prevents law abiding people from having things that are very responsible with. But that's here, not there. Well,
Stoney
it's like, let's stop drunk drivers from killing people by stopping the non drunk people from driving.
Jason
Now that's basically the what you do. That's that's
Stoney
what you're doing. So you see, you're going to leave the drunk drivers on the road. What you're going to do is remove the non drinking people from the road so they can't die anymore, so that the drunk people can continue to do what they want to do, right? Well,
Jason
Hunter, it's interesting. Hunters reaction on if y'all read his statement that he gave, because I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction, mistakes I have been exploited to public, to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political support. He goes, I will never take the clemency I've been given today for granted, and I will devote my life, devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering. So you know, you actually believe that bullshit. I'm just saying, This is what he said. So, yeah, you know, you know whether the guy don't know Hunter biding Biden personally, right? So I don't know the guy's heart. I really don't know what's really going on. Is he a fallen human being? Yes, you know, unfortunately, he, he got himself into a lot of trouble, and unfortunately, I think his his he's just not very rational in his thinking, especially if he was, you know, addicted to drugs and stuff like that. Because I know what that does to people. I. So. But, you know, does that excuse him from basically doing what he did? I think his actions put the United States in a compromising position, which in essence, that means all of us, yes, and that's where the problem comes in. So we'll see, we'll see what happens with that, right? I'm not one to, you know, I said I'm surprised it's taken this long. You
Ian
those aren't done sooner. I
Jason
think that probably would have been done sooner. But, you know, Joe Biden has, what about another 50 days to be president?
Stoney
That's crazy about roughly, yeah, yeah, January
Jason
20 is when Trump gets sworn in. So that's crazy that
Ian
I remember us having an episode, you know, a few months ago and thinking like, oh, it's less than 100 days till the election. It's always, yeah, right. I remember that till the election, and now we're sitting here like, oh, you know, it's, that's already passed, and here we are on the other end of it. I
Jason
mean, it is a very broad the ability to pardon crimes. That's a that's, that's, but see, he's
Stoney
not pardoning a crime. He did pardon two crimes. Well, yeah,
Jason
he did pardon crime, but
Stoney
he crying. He pardoned more than the crime, right? He pardoned his possibility of action.
Jason
Yeah, maybe he did commit something wrong, that nothing has been brought up that was wrong yet, right? So, yeah, I mean, it's a good way of, basically, it's a catch all, you know, that way you're not looking over your shoulder and it's done. It's like, okay, yeah, we'll start over again. But, you know, I mean, yeah, we're, you know, I don't know what the political fallout I mean, Biden has fallen into purposes. He's he's hardly there. Everybody knows Joe Biden's career is over with. I mean, wouldn't be surprised how much longer he lives after if
Stoney
it's actually the real Joe Biden? Well, that's,
Jason
that's a topic for another podcast,
Ian
yeah, but we'll save that for the conspiracy episode, exactly.
Jason
So, yeah, I
Stoney
don't I just remember conspiracy theorists are up 32 to nothing right now. Yeah. I
Jason
mean, so they give them a lot of ammunition.
Stoney
Yes. Hey, you know, the libraries have removed the conspiracy theory to the Daily News section. Now stop.
Ian
You. Said that. You think that Biden's gonna try and swear in?
Stoney
I think he's gonna walk away. Okay? I think he's gonna walk away. And besides, but
Jason
what is if he if he's not for Kamala Harris, doesn't
Stoney
matter. Why
Jason
would he do that?
Stoney
So that Candace Owens isn't the first female president?
Jason
Well, I don't know who will be when the time.
Stoney
If you really want to screw people over, why don't Donald Trump just, you know, say he's a woman, identify as a woman, and he can be the first female president.
Ian
I mean, that is a that is an answer
Jason
some of the craziness that's been going on in our country. Yeah, over the last 3 3-4, years, Nothing surprises me anymore. I know that that little joke he said at the Al Smith dinner to Chuck Schumer was just hilarious. I remember that that was, he made some comment about Chuck, you know, wanting the first, you know, Democrats who won the worst, first female president. And basically said, if you know, if something's in effect, they will, you know, it could still happen because of the, you know, the, yeah, you know, identifying, I define as a woman and be the first female president, you know, I mean, so I don't know. It's just some of this stuff is, is crazy, yeah, so, but, you know, Trump, Bria reacted in a in a way that, oh,
Ian
what do you say? Oh, yeah, he just basically
Jason
said it was a miscarriage of justice, and, you know, on and on and on. I wish Trump would have said that. I wish Trump would have just, you know, just simply said, you know, well, he's president, and you know, well, I just why. I personally disagree with that particular pardon, but I understand, as a father trying to protect his son, kind of taking more of the high road a little bit right? Showed a little graciousness. But no, but nope, he didn't. So it's but that doesn't surprise me. No, yeah, so you know, it's just, but there's been several, several Democrats have also have expressed. Dismay over
Stoney
there, huge just, oh, this is what I'm saying. Where it was the party was divided before, yeah, you're this is really this? They got some big time people coming out and saying, No, well, they say because I think they realize that he's protecting himself more than he's protecting his son, right?
Ian
He goes
Jason
like Greg Stanton, it's a Democrat representative of Arizona posted on X said, I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn't a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.
Stoney
Yeah. So Donald Trump never had the jury thing.
Jason
Of course, Marjorie Taylor Green says Joe Biden is a liar and a hypocrite all the way to the end. Now, former US attorney Eric Holder posted on X that the pardon was warranted. Of course, you know, right? Eric Holder, that's another far left in his politics. And I believe he was under, uh, Was he under uh, Obama or Clinton? I
Ian
don't remember. Eric Holder. I I
Jason
don't remember.
Yeah,
Ian
let's see. I think it was under Obama
Jason
my event,
Ian
he was selected as the first attorney general
Jason
under under Biden. Holder
Ian
was a close ally and confidant of Obama, and was selected as his first attorney I like
Stoney
the way you said that, oh, Biden instead of Obama. So Biden because everybody, everybody thinks Obama's still the one pulling the strings. Right now, through the I got a Biden on them,
Jason
yeah, under Clinton, it was Janet Reno, right? Yes, Janet Reno,
Stoney
that was a great fraud and slip there, because that's perfect. Because everybody still thinks by Obama's still pulling the strings.
That's funny, interesting, yeah,
Jason
yeah. He kept saying, oh, Biden. I was like, What do you great?
Ian
I mean, that's brilliant. Actually, an accident.
Stoney
No, it's perfect accident. I loved it,
Jason
yeah, Trump, Trump basically said such an abuse and miscarriage of justice. Uh, he say he brought it to January 6 rioters, some of whom he'd suggest it could be pardoned when he takes office. So, yeah, yeah, we're, you know, it's, it's on the
Ian
other end of this. I guess we'll see what, where this all takes place. Like we said before, earlier, I can't believe that we're, you know, just about two months out from or less than two months out until the inauguration, which is crazy to think about that. Yeah, time has been flying. Yeah, the
Jason
pardon grant referencing crimes Hunter Biden may have committed is notable because of because the Special Counsel investigated him, hinted at evidence that foreign interest paid him to influence the US government, which could have been which could have violated the foreign Agents Registration Act. It's over with. So he'll go free, and what he did or didn't do, and now that his father is is leaving, he's not going to have any more influence. Nobody's gonna need him.
Ian
You gotta take their money and run now, right? Yeah,
Stoney
pretty much, that's it. Take your money, run and go, snorted up his nose and just don't get caught after, or just whatever he
Jason
gets into next. You know, hopefully he saved his money. I do
Ian
think, I mean, like, obviously, I know you were saying, this is some of it's factual, but like, it now that, like, I'm hearing about this. It may not be Joe Biden specifically, or whoever Joe Biden's handlers are, whatever you want to consider that as, but it's like, it really does feel like, um, that. It feels like Hunter Biden was the scapegoat all along. They're just like, you can be drug addled. You can do whatever, just like, show up and just play your part, do this thing, and then we'll reap in the money. And then, of course, eventually, later on, the future, I'll just pardon it's all good. I kind of just trust just trust me the just trust the process, yeah, anyways, that just feels kind of shady. So, I mean, all of it does, but still, well,
Jason
I mean, any of these kind of situations are going to be shady,
Stoney
yeah? And you're talking about the government, right?
Jason
I mean, it's look people at that level of power and influence. Hey, you've all they don't operate on the same rules as you and I do. You know, you've
Stoney
all heard the thing. Why does the government like you to steal, kill and rob people? Why is that because they don't like the competition. There you go.
Jason
Unfortunately, we've just, in many ways, we've just kind of lost our way. I mean, we have, I mean, it's this, is this kind of greatness that I believe we've lost somewhere we got off the tracks, and maybe it's inevitable, you know, we are the top dog in the world. There's no country that matches us, you know. And I think with that comes a lot of decadence and just looking out for me, and and we've kind of lost that sense of of being an American, and kind of that, that interconnectedness that I think permeated our population at one time, right?
Stoney
Well, we talked about it in the fourth turning, you know, we had easy times, and now we've got weak men handling situations for us, and they're going to create some, some hard times. And those hard times are coming, and we're in the middle of the weak man industry right now. They are destroying this country, the fabric the world, yep, and, and, you know, until the strong men get back into the saddle, don't have problems. And Joe, Joe Biden is a prime example of a weak man, and I'm sorry, he's the President of the United States, at least for the next couple of hours, and until he steps down, so that, you know, Kamala Harris can be president. But, and I say, Yes, I don't know if he is. I don't think nobody wants I say that in jest. I'm just joking. But anybody wants her around? No, and, but it just shows you what happens when you got weak men in power.
Jason
Well, I think, I mean, you know, Joe Biden, in his prime,
Stoney
was still a liar, was still a cheat. Yeah, he couldn't tell the truth for nothing he his character is a weak man from day one.
Jason
Well, unfortunately, the people of Delaware kept reelecting him. Unfortunately, it happens everywhere I can. Well, think about
Stoney
how many times Nancy Pelosi has been elected. I think her. Yeah, these people have been in power since the 80s, and yet they want to blame Donald Trump. I
Jason
think her train at six and comes on in too. I think we're, I think we're seeing a shift, yep, and
Stoney
some this, this thing right here, this pardon can can help push that agenda, yeah,
Jason
kind of on a different subject. But did you see that Bill Gates now wants to work with the Trump administration. Everybody
Stoney
wants to work with Bernie Sanders said he wants to work with him, yeah?
Jason
Because they know their day they gonna have nothing. That's right, they're gonna be useless. And so I hope, I think it takes, you know, don't let them flatter him.
Ian
I I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine, and I think that the the discourse feels a little different now, like, like things feel different after the election, but, but, but not for like, the big reasons we've talked about on this show, but like, the more subtle reasons of like. I think that certain people are starting to realize that there is a majority, there's a majority that voted the way that they voted. And I think that some people are starting to catch on to that the like we thought that those people were the the, you know, the kind of more silent minority, or whatever that they were that on the other side, or the people that all the people that voted for Trump, were all radicals, but it's like, then you look at the polls now, and there's an overwhelming majority of people that voted for Trump and so I think that that, at least for me, looking around and having discussions and talking about is like, oh, so like, I think we've had years and years and years of feeling like we may have felt one way, but you have to be silent. You may have felt one way, or you just can't talk about it, because, again, the the liberal side may get more upset. It may, you know, try and get try and cancel you or whatever, but now it's like, oh, we're in a world now where I think that there are more people that I think believe a certain way than I thought, at least for these current times we're going through. They may not love Trump, but they. Think they like him more than, Oh, you
Stoney
see one of his biggest opponents was down at Mar a Lago. You saw Justin Castro was down there, right? I mean, Justin Trudeau, yeah, he was down
Ian
No, that was
Stoney
but, but but he was down there talking to Trump, the point that I'm making, I think not even president yet, right? And he's down there talking to Trump, not
Ian
only, not only do I think that they that, I think that I believe that a lot of people are starting to see that Trump's in office now, and I think he's going to try and get stuff done. But I think it's also that that there is a majority of the American people are also behind them as well. Yeah, that's, that's what's that's what's different. It may not be just the fact they may not have any programs anymore. They may not get funding. Those are very big deals. But I think it's also this, like, this state trying to stay relevant, subconscious now, of like, oh, maybe I'm the outside guy now, maybe I'm the one that is easy to get made fun of now, so let me go ahead and jump on. Let me go ahead and wag the bandwagon everyone else. All right now, I mean, for, like, I said, for all the same self preservation reasons of funding and wanting a job or, you know, wanting to stay relevant, but it's more so the fact of like, oh, maybe like, I gotta stay cool. And if everyone thinks Trump's cool right now, well, I gotta be okay with Trump, even though I talked so much crap about him for Well,
Jason
I think, I think drop has successfully, basically made himself. He's the cool guy as
Ian
I'm saying. I think, don't get me wrong, I think he still says some stuff. And I'm like, Man, I just wish you would not say that stuff, you know or not, be that like that, but I do agree that I think that there are people now that are like, I think a big thing too is I think that podcasts and I think that YouTube and I think that like, where we are now, there was a point in time 10 years ago where major media used to make fun of YouTube and content creators and podcasters and things like that, because that was they had the corner. Yeah, we're in a world now where legacy media doesn't have the corner anymore. Elon Musk said, I'm saying we're the new news. I'm saying you, uh, Donald Trump can go on a handful of podcasts and and reach millions, reach a bunch of people and make them see like, oh, maybe he's not all bad. Whereas, whereas anybody on that other side of the spectrum didn't do that because
Jason
they would, they filtered 100%
Ian
they filtered it for a different world. Now,
Jason
you know, thank bear. Thank bear and Trump, because he's the one who convinced his dad look this podcast. Well,
Ian
yeah. With all that being said, thank you guys so much for listening. Like we had mentioned at the top of the episode, we're gonna have, we have plans to make one about secret societies and things like that. So if you have any questions or have anything you want to you want to throw into the mix there, go ahead and toss it to us. We have Facebook page at retrospect pod, or you can give us an email getoffendedtogether@gmail.com the website. What is it? Again?
Retrospectpodcast.com
retrospectpodcast.com or you can also leave comments on Spotify and YouTube, all those different places you can get involved with us.
Stoney
History is rarely about isolated events. It's about the patterns, choices and consequences that echo through time. Today's discussion about President Biden's pardon of his son Hunter is a powerful reminder of how personal decisions can intersect with political narratives altering the course of history as we move forward. Let's not forget that every action, no matter how small, leaves a mark for future generations to analyze and interpret. Thank you for taking part of our journey with us today, and as always, we invite you to reflect on what these moments mean for our collective understanding of governance and justice. This has been the retrospect podcast where hindsight helps us make sense of today.
Ian
until next week. Thank you so much for listening. Bye, goodbye, goodbye,
Jason
everyone. God bless.
Stoney
You're the best. Peace.