President-elect Donald Trump responded to President Joe Biden’s expansive pardon of his son, Hunter, calling it a “miscarriage of justice.”
Trump’s comments were echoed by a wave of criticism following the Sunday night pardon. The president and his White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, both previously said Biden would not pardon his son.
“President Biden insisted many times he would never pardon his own son for his serious crimes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement. “But last night he suddenly granted a ‘Full and Unconditional Pardon’ for any and all offenses that Hunter committed for more than a decade!
“Trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it,” he added. “Real reform cannot begin soon enough!”
Republicans have argued for years that Democrats weaponized the Justice Department against Trump. Republicans have pushed back, pointing to whistleblower reports and other evidence suggesting that Hunter received special treatment from the DOJ and helped lead an international Biden family business raking in money from entities in Ukraine, China and elsewhere.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump said in a statement. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Biden also repeatedly bashed Trump, saying no one is above the law and leading Democrats in their campaign attacks against Trump with the refrain of “no one is above the law.”
“I honestly don’t care,” Charlamagne said on the Breakfast Club show. “I just want Democrats to stop acting like they are on this moral high ground politically when they have shown us they’re not. You know, whether it’s skipping the primary process when Biden stepped down and things like Biden pardoning his son. Stop acting like y’all are the pure party and Republicans aren’t.”
Biden released a statement Sunday announcing and preemptively defending his decision to broadly pardon Hunter and that the charges were “instigated” by the president’s political opponents in Congress.
As The Center Square previously reported, Hunter Biden’s plea agreement with the Department of Justice fell through earlier this year amid pressure from Republican lawmakers, who said the deal was too favorable to the president’s son.
“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” Biden said in a statement. “Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
Many mainstream media pundits and outlets took fire for repeatedly insisting that Biden would not pardon Hunter, referencing Biden’s commitment to not do so.
“Never mind about the corruption, never mind about the gun offenses, never mind about the drug offenses, never mind about the tax offenses,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on his podcast “The Verdict” Sunday. “No man is above the law unless your name is Joe Biden and the entire Biden family.”
Hunter faced tax and gun-related charges, but the president’s pardon covers any potential crimes dating back to 2014, which happens to cover the years where Hunter did his overseas dealings and brought in millions of dollars to his business using the Biden name, according to House investigations.
“Democrats said there was nothing to our impeachment inquiry,” U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said on X. “If that’s the case, why did Joe Biden just issue Hunter Biden a pardon for the very things we were inquiring about?”
