While controversy over presidential pardons has a long history — from George Washington absolving instigators of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1795 to Gerald Ford pardoning Richard M. Nixon after the Watergate scandal forced his resignation — few have used the constitutionally vested power to pardon family members.

The decision to issue a blanket pardon for his son Hunter will forever be a part of the president’s legacy. Across an extraordinary five decades in public life, with a long rise from the Senate to the Oval Office, his Sunday night declaration puts an exclamation point – and a question mark – on Biden’s tenure in a changing era of American politics.

President Biden has privately expressed guilt for years about the investigations and convictions of his son Hunter. Late Sunday night, he tried to lighten that guilt by giving him a broad pardon. Why it matters: Biden's pardon marks the end of a central drama of his presidency that has both weighed him down and propelled him forward.