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Hunter Biden pardon fallout and strategic timing behind Syria's reignited civil war: Morning Rundown

Donald Trump could use Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden for his own gain, some worry. Los Angeles police said a missing Hawaii woman has left the country. And the Oxford University Press revealed its 2024 word of the year.

Here’s what to know today.

Hunter Biden pardon gives Trump political cover

President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden was a move by a father to protect his son that some lawmakers said they could understand. “I’ll put it this way — if it was my son, I’d pardon him too,” Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville said.

What hasn’t resonated as widely is Biden’s stated reason for pardoning Hunter Biden.

In his statement Sunday, Biden alleged a “miscarriage of justice” in justifying his decision. Yesterday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended Biden, telling reporters he believes “Hunter was singled out. … And so the president believed enough is enough, and the president took action, and he also believes that they tried to break his son in order to break him.”

But having spared his son any punishment, some party lawmakers and strategists have said they fear Biden has given President-elect Donald Trump political cover to pursue far-right ambitions. They worry Biden and fellow Democratic leaders may lose some of the moral authority needed to object to future pardons that Trump grants, and give credence to his assertions there is rot that needs removing within the Department of Justice.

“The unfortunate thing here is he [Biden] basically has legitimized these accusations against the Justice Department, and that is going to reverberate for the next four years,” said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist.

“Whatever Trump plans for pardons of the Jan. 6 felons, he’ll use it as a justification,” said Ty Cobb, a former special counsel in the Trump White House who has become a critic. “And certainly, his supporters will accept it as a justification. That’s a tragedy for this country.”

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, a typically solid Biden ally, said, “I think it was wrong what he did. It’s just going to further erode folks’ confidence in the Department of Justice and in our judicial system at large.”

Read the full story here.

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Trump announced plans to travel to Paris this weekend in his first overseas trip as president-elect.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who served as a top prosecutor in Trump’s impeachment trial, plans to challenge Rep. Jerry Nadler for the top Democratic spot on the powerful House Judiciary Committee.

Syria thrust back into civil war as its allies focus on other fronts

It took only a few hours for Syrian rebels to recapture territory that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had spent years reclaiming in a lightning offensive launched last week with little warning. Now, a country that has been absent from the spotlight amid other ongoing Middle East conflicts is dominating headlines as a long-simmering civil war reignites. Here’s some of what we know.

What has happened: In a little less than a week, rebels led by the militant group Hayat Tahir al-Sham, or HTS, launched an assault that took the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo, as well as other nearby provinces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Syrian and Russian fighter jets responded by launching airstrikes on the rebel-held areas. Assad’s government claimed to have killed hundreds of “terrorists,” but the Observatory said dozens of civilians were killed as well.

Why now? Russia, Iran and Hezbollah (Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy) helped Assad prevail during the Arab Spring of 2011. Today, all three are either distracted or depleted amid ongoing conflicts, putting Syria “in a much weaker position,” a Russia analyst said.

Of course, the offensive has brought up several questions, like where might HTS strike next? And could the U.S. get involved? Researchers say the threat of ISIS regrouping is also something to consider.

Congress faces key funding deadline

The pressure is on for Congress to agree on funding by Dec. 20 to avert a government shutdown. It appears that Democrats and Republicans will pass a continuing resolution, or CR, to temporarily fund the government, most likely into March 2025. The two parties haven’t agreed to a spending level for the new fiscal year, let alone how to allocate the money across parts of the government.

For Republicans, several factors are at play. On one hand, punting the funding deadline by a few months would allow them to have more leverage in the new year, after President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House and the GOP takes control of the Senate. However, it would create a critical deadline early in Trump’s term and take valuable time away from confirming his nominees and passing new bills. Another complicating dynamic is the looming vote for House Speaker.

Missing Hawaii woman went to Mexico, L.A. police say

The case of Hannah Kobayashi, the 30-year-old Hawaii woman at the center of a missing persons search in Los Angeles, has been reclassified as one involving a “voluntary missing person,” police said. In a news conference yesterday, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Kobayahsi willfully crossed into Mexico from San Diego on Nov. 12, a day before she was reported missing. Police reviewed Kobayashi’s social media accounts and believe Kobayashi “wanted to disconnect.”

McDonnell said Kobayashi has done nothing criminal and has every right to leave the country, but he urged her to reach out to family members because they’re worried. He added that LAPD will keep the case open until they know Kobayashi is safe. Here’s what else we know.

Read All About It

A South Carolina woman was sentenced to 25 years in prison for drunkenly crashing into a newlywed couple’s golf cart on their wedding day, killing the bride and seriously injuring the groom.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost a bid to get his $56 billion pay package reinstated.
An 88-year-old doctor accused of sexually assaulting Indiana University basketball players in the 1990s is expected to appear at a hearing to determine whether he is competent to testify in a deposition.
Police in Colorado maintained their dedication to solving JonBenét Ramsey’s death in light of a new Netflix docuseries.

Staff Pick: And the Oxford University Press 2024 word of the year is...

distorted words that read "brain rot" in black against neon green background (Leila Register / NBC News)

“Brain rot.” If you’re extremely online or know a Gen Z or Gen Alpha kid, then you’ve likely heard the term. The word (or words, if we’re being picky) is defined by Oxford as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state,” especially when consuming too much of something “trivial or unchallenging.” The word speaks to the current culture of social media and being chronically online, but here’s a cool thing I learned while reading this article: “Brain rot” was actually first used in 1854. — Elizabeth Robinson, newsletter editor