Since Trump took office, officials have transferred ten of the 37 men Biden spared from execution to the "Alcatraz of the Rockies." One prisoner still awaiting transfer has attempted suicide.
Tapper's book, co-authored by Alex Thompson, describes a president who struggled to function: "One person told us that the presidency was, at best, a five-person board with Joe Biden as chairman."
Author Chris Whipple says Biden's family and closest advisers operated in a "fog of delusion" regarding his ability to serve another term: "There's no doubt that they were protecting the president."
The pardon comes in the last weeks of President Biden's time in office and despite his public assurances in the past that he would neither pardon nor commute his son's sentence.