The comments in this thread are completely insane. Nobody remembers anything, so let's check in on the history of pardons:

Bill Clinton pardoned actual criminal Marc Rich.

George H.W. Bush pardoned actual criminals associated with Iran Contra.

George W. pardoned Scooter Libby for obstructing a CIA investigation.

Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio who did racial profiling in contempt of court.

Trump is about to pardon everyone from Jan 6th.

Ford pardoned Nixon and Andrew Johnson pardoned basically the entire confederate south.

So if you're going to stand here and say that Hunter Biden's pardoning is a singularly unique, precedent-setting moment in American history signalling the downfall of democracy? I'm going to hand you a bouncy ball and some orange slices and tell you to go play in the corner. You are not a serious person.

Edit: And for the dipsticks here who think a "pre-emptive" pardon is new... Ford's pardon of Nixon was pre-emptive. So you're only like 50 years and 3 months out of date on that talking point. Oops.