For several months, President Joe Biden repeatedly insisted that he would not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, of his convictions for federal felony gun and tax law violations, only to break that promise on Sunday with a broad blanket pardon just weeks before Hunter was to face sentencing.

While many Democrats and media figures have hypocritically defended Biden's duplicitous about-face on the matter, some Democratic members of Congress have been surprisingly critical of the lame-duck president's extension of clemency for his convicted lawbreaker son, The Guardian reported.

Those Democrats largely understood why Biden granted the pardon on a personal father-son level, but lamented the dishonesty and the appearance of impropriety and corrupt nepotism in the form of favorable treatment for a family member above the interests of the country.

Biden pardoned his son

On Sunday, President Biden announced that he'd granted his son Hunter a "Full and Unconditional Pardon" for any and all federal offenses "which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024," including the offenses charged and prosecuted by Special Counsel David Weiss in Delaware and California.

In an accompanying statement, the president asserted that his son had been "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted" for crimes that he claimed often go unpunished, and insisted that it was "clear that Hunter was treated differently."

He further alleged that his son was "singled out" by his partisan opponents and prosecuted solely because of "political pressure" that in actuality was aimed at him, and declared, "Enough is enough."

"For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded," Biden concluded. "Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also 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 decision."

A few elected Democrats bravely cry foul

While most Republicans were outraged if unsurprised by President Biden's pardon for his son after repeatedly vowing he wouldn't issue one, and many Democrats and media figures conveniently overlooked the president's dishonest reversal and praised him for the move, some elected Democrats recognized that it was a bad look and had the gumption to say so publicly.

Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) shared Biden's pardon statement on social media and wrote, "President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all."

Similarly, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) told reporters, "President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is, as the action of a loving father, understandable -- but as the action of our nation’s Chief Executive, unwise."

Likewise, Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) said in an X post, "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."

Then there was Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), who posted, "As a father, I get it. But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback."

White House has no explanation

The Guardian noted that a few other Democrat-aligned figures in the media, including left-leaning journalists and NeverTrump former Republicans who've supported President Biden, also felt bold enough to call out the outgoing president for breaking his word and violating the norms he swore to uphold with the ill-advised blanket pardon for his son.

As for the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was hit with a barrage of pointed questions about the pardon for Hunter during a Monday press gaggle, but she could do little more than stumble through a stuttering defense of her boss' actions that merely repeatedly reiterated what he said in his statement without any additional explanation.