White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed disgruntled reporters Friday in her first official press briefing since President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Dec. 1
Defending Biden’s official statement on the matter, Jean-Pierre echoed the president’s feelings that “Hunter’s family had been through enough.”
“Enough was enough. And [President Biden] wrestled with these circumstances,” she said.
Reporters were quick to snipe at the decision, with Associated Press correspondent Zeke Miller pushing Jean-Pierre to hold herself accountable for Biden’s past promises that he would not pardon Hunter.
Pointing out that Jean-Pierre had reiterated in July that Hunter would not be pardoned, Miller asked: “Do you owe an apology to the American people?”
Jean-Pierre did not take the bait.
“I just—Zeke! I just laid out the president’s thinking,” she retorted.
“The president laid it out himself in his own words. He did. He laid out how he wrestled with this decision,” Jean-Pierre said. “He said in his statement, as a president, as a father, he talked about how difficult it was to make this decision.”
The press secretary doubled down on her defense of Biden’s decision when the mic was passed to CNN White House correspondent MJ Lee.
“Zeke asked this question, I just didn’t hear an answer,” Lee prefaced. “The next time the president says he will or won’t do something, why should the American people believe him?”
Shooting down Lee’s question, Jean-Pierre said, “I’m not going to relitigate this.”
Despite reporters grilling her at the briefing, the press secretary presented poll results that challenged just how many Democrats are actually upset about Biden pardoning his son.
A whopping 64% of Democrats said in a recent YouGov poll that they approve of the pardon. That’s a complete reversal from a 2023 poll, when 64% of Democrats disapproved of a hypothetical pardon. It’s clear that the latest presidential election results—and Donald Trump’s threats of retribution against Biden and his family—have helped to swing opinions on the matter.
Hunter was facing potential prison time over a conviction on felony gun charges.
The trial showcased Hunter’s past addiction struggles and centered around his purchase of a revolver in 2018. As the legal drama unfurled, Republicans grilled him over false statements he made on a mandatory gun-purchase form when claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
He was convicted of three felony charges and in September pleaded guilty to federal tax charges accusing the 54-year-old of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
Hunter was supposed to be sentenced this month for both cases by judges in California and Delaware who were nominated to the federal bench by Trump.
While the right may be up in arms about the president’s decision, the ever flip-flopping felon-elect Trump previously said he would consider pardoning Hunter.
“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” Trump told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt.
Trump did take the time to announce his own pardon plans in retaliation for Biden’s.
In a Truth Social post, Trump suggested he would use Biden’s decision as an excuse to pardon the hundreds of people who broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He must be hoping everyone has forgotten that Trump vowed to pardon those criminals long before President Biden took action to protect his only living son.
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