Hunter Biden’s pardon is quickly becoming something of a third rail in the earliest stages of the 2028 presidential primary, with few ambitious Democrats showing any desire to touch it.

President Joe Biden just made history — the bad kind — with Sunday night’s sweeping Thanksgiving-weekend pardon of his own son, Hunter Biden. (Talk about trying to bury a story.) The outgoing president made this all way harder than it needed to be on himself, his son, and the justice system.

President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden is further bruising a party that was already reeling from blistering electoral losses, with a wave of Capitol Hill Democrats criticizing the move as counterproductive to their party’s efforts toward rebuilding public trust in American institutions scorned by President-elect Trump.