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President Joe Biden’s press secretary was questioned by reporters aboard Air Force One Monday morning as she tried to defend his decision to pardon his son after months of saying he would not use his position to get Hunter Biden off the hook to hit. Karine Jean-Pierre found herself in the line of fire because she had also repeatedly said that the president would not pardon his son for tax and gun crimes. “Can these statements now be viewed as lies by the American people?” she was asked during the flight to Angola.
“Is there really a credibility issue given this announcement?” Jean-Pierre insisted the president was a truthful man who only came to his decision over the weekend, as he said in his Sunday statement. “First of all, one of the things the president has always believed in is being fair to the American people,” she said. “That’s something he always really believes in.”
The decision has set off a firestorm of anger, which was only amplified by the decision to make the announcement just before Biden embarked on a trip to Africa, allowing him to avoid tough questions. President-elect Donald Trump quickly seized on the announcement, questioning whether it extended to people jailed after the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. And his aides said it proved their point that the Justice Department was no longer fit for purpose.
Jean-Pierre desperately tried to cling to the argument that Biden still had faith in the justice system, even though it had failed his son. “Two things can be true,” she said. “The president does believe in the legal system and the Justice Department, and he also believes that his son was politically sidelined.” Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September and was scheduled to be sentenced on December 16.
A jury found him guilty in June of making false statements on a gun background check; He was also expected to be sentenced on these charges this month. The president said in June that he would not pardon his son. Asked during an interview with ABC News if he would rule out pardoning Hunter, he replied, “Yes.” Jean-Pierre delivered the same message over and over again.
In July 2023, the White House press secretary was asked if there was any possibility that Biden would pardon his son. “No,” she replied bluntly. When a Fox News journalist tried to follow up, she interrupted him. “I just said no,” she said before moving on to another reporter.
As recently as November 8, just after Trump won the election, she ruled out this idea. ‘We have been asked that question several times. Our answer still stands: “no,” she said. In total, she denied this possibility on at least six different occasions. That was all undone on Sunday. Biden issued a statement saying his son had been selectively prosecuted and treated differently than others in similar situations.
Jean-Pierre defended the decision, saying Hunter would be pursued by political opponents. “They were going to keep going after his son,” she told reporters on Air Force One. She insisted he had been treated differently because of his surname, and listed legal experts who said charges would not normally have been brought for such crimes.
“That’s why we are where we are, and why the president granted the pardon,” she said. “And he believes his son was picked, and… Hunter Biden was picked, because his father is the president. That’s what we’re talking about here. “And that’s what we’ve seen over the last few years, and that’s what the president spoke against, and that’s why the president took the action that he did.
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