White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre went toe to toe with reporters, telling them, “Enough is enough,” while defending President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, NBC News reported.
Despite telling the press on a number of occasions that Biden had no plans to issue a pardon for his troubled son, the President made the last-minute decision on Dec. 1. Jean-Pierre defended her boss while en route to Angola on Air Force One, saying the President “wrestled” with the decision but ultimately “believes in the justice system.”
“He said he came to this decision this weekend, and he said he wrestled with this and, because he believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” she said.
“Hunter was singled out, and because his last name was Biden, because he was the president’s son. That’s what we saw. And so the president believed enough is enough, and the president took action, and he also believes that they tried to break his son in order to break him.”
Biden’s only surviving son was found guilty on federal gun charges in June 2024 and pleaded guilty to tax evasion in a separate case in September 2024. Following the charges, Jean-Pierre was constantly confronted by reporters on whether Hunter would be pardoned, including during a press conference in September, saying, “It’s no — it’s still no.”
She provided a similar response when reporters asked the question again on Nov. 7, dismissing a question about Biden’s plan to pardon his son.
“We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no,” she said.
According to The National Review, Republican lawmakers and even some Democrats labeled Hunter’s pardon as the president lying to the American people, as Hunter’s sentencing for both cases was scheduled to take place in late December 2024. However, people on social media are pushing the criticism back to the GOP as their soon-to-be leader, President-elect Donald Trump, pardoned others with similar charges to Hunter’s. Some even say they understand where Biden is coming from as they would do the same for their child.
Comedian Lil’ Duval supported the President’s decision, saying he doesn’t get the concern. “So if yall was president, yall wouldn’t pardon yo child? I know I would and wouldn’t give af how hypocritical it would be,” he said on X.
Another user, @facts0601, pointed out that Biden wasn’t the one who promised pardons to people who took over Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021. “Joe doesn’t owe us any explanation.
“But he said he wasn’t going to pardon Hunter!” yeah, and you guys said January 6 was a stain on our country, and you just re-elected the guy who caused it. I don’t wanna hear it,” he wrote.
During Trump’s first term in office, he issued 144 pardons, including a distant family member, Jared Kushner’s father, Charles, and ally Roger Stone. Charles Kushner served more than 16 months after being convicted of preparing false tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2005.
Stone was sentenced to more than three years in prison prior to Trump commuting the sentence. The Department of Justice found him guilty in 2019 of obstruction of a congressional investigation, making false statements to Congress, and tampering with a witness.
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