Republicans accused President Biden of lying and corruption after the president’s stunning Sunday night reversal to pardon his son Hunter – but the deeper cut came from a prominent member of his own party.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, ripped Biden’s lame duck decision and accused the chief of his party of putting ‘family ahead of the country.’
‘While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country,’ Polis wrote.
‘This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.’
Polis endorsed Biden in 2020 and even held back when there were early calls for Biden to step aside after his debate disaster.
The comment reflected the blowback that the pardon is already bringing, and concerns Donald Trump will use it to his own advantage.
Democrats have repeatedly accused Trump of trying to bend the Justice Department to his own will to carry out vengeance and doling out special favors to family members.
The Donald Trump campaign issued a furious statement blasting the pardon – and used it to accuse Democrats of ‘weaponizing’ the justice system.
Joe Biden will announce a presidential pardon for his troubled son Hunter on Sunday night, a senior White House official has said
‘The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,’ incoming Trump communications director Steven Cheung told DailyMail.com.
‘That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people.’
A White House official denied the pardon had anything to do with Trump’s announcement he will name Kash Patel to run the FBI and install other loyalists.
‘No – this is in response to what has already happened in this case, in which political pressure has resulted in a miscarriage of justice,’ said the official.
Underlining how he might bank on the Biden pardon to make his own use of the extraordinary power, Trump raised the prospect of pardoning January 6 defendants who rioted in the Capitol.
‘Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
Among the first to fire off a furious statement was Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer, among the leading advocates in Congress for going after Hunter, and among those who Biden may have had in mind when he complained that his political opponents in Congress ‘instigated’ the charges against Hunter ‘attack me and oppose my election.’
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis accused Biden of putting ‘family ahead of the country’ with the pardon
‘Joe Biden has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities,’ wrote Comer in a post on X.
‘Not only has he falsely claimed that he never met with his son’s foreign business associates and that his son did nothing wrong, but he also lied when he said he would not pardon Hunter Biden.’
‘The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people. It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.’
Some of those allegations, including Hunter’s generous board position for Burisma and other globetrotting deals, though probed by the House GOP and prosecutors over a period of years, did not result in charges. House Republicans also shelved their impeachment inquiry.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is 91 and served decades with Biden, expressed frustration with the president – and himself.
‘I’m shocked Pres Biden pardoned his son Hunter bc he said many many times he wouldn’t & I believed him Shame on me,’ Grassley wrote on X.
The fury came as the details of Biden’s extraordinary action were coming to light. He opted to issue a blanket pardon going back to December 1, 2014 ‘including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted’ charges brought by special counsel David Weiss.
That period encompasses a long period before Biden took office, and would include Hunter’s foreign business dealings while his father was vice president. That is the year he was appointed to a lucrative position on the energy firm’s board.
Biden said repeatedly that he would not pardon his son, even as his legal situation deteriorated when a plea deal on tax and gun charges spectacularly collapsed in Wilmington.
Asked if he would accept the outcome if a jury found his son guilty, Biden asnswered with a simple ‘yes’ in a comment to ABC this summer,
Asked if he was ruling out a pardon, he responded with a declarative: ‘Yes.’
‘I will not pardon him,’ he said after a Delaware jury convicted him on gun charges.
The statement by Polis drew a sharp riposte from a Democratic strategist, in a warning to other party members who might stray.
‘Governor Polis just endorsed RFK Jr., who wants to end research into life-saving cures because a worm ate part of his brain. So he should look to his own reputation.’ Polis gave support to Trump’s decision to nominate RFK, Jr. to run the Health and Human Services Department.
On November 7, two days after the election with Donald Trump’s return to the White House clear, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answered with a ‘no’ when asked if the president would pardon Hunter.
But there had long been suspicions that Biden would in the end pardon Hunter, his sole surviving son.
Rather than wait for the Christmas period, when Donald Trump issued a series of pardons, Biden picked the Sunday after Thanksgiving, on a day Trump announced he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel to run the FBI.
President Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger for charges related to cocaine distribution on January 20, 2001, his last day in office.
‘From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ Biden said in a statement.
Hunter Biden was facing sentencing within days after conviction on a gun charge
The pardon came Sunday night, after Biden returned from a weekend with family in Nantucket
For months, the nation wondered if the president would pardon his ne’er-do-well son over his convictions on federal gun and tax fraud charges
He claimed that people are ‘almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form.’
‘It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.’
The president said that ‘several of my political opponents in Congress‘ made the charges a public concern ‘to attack me and oppose my election.’
He added that had the plea deal Hunter agreed to with the Department of Justice not fallen through, the president would have seen it as a ‘fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.’
‘No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because is my son – and that is wrong,’ he continued.
Also chiming in was Trump loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who accused Hunter of breaking lobby registration laws due to his overseas business practices that the special counsel did not charge him with.
‘Hunter Biden broke gun laws, he broke the FARA Act, and worst of all, he broke the Mann Act by sex trafficking women across the country. This pardon is Joe Biden’s admission that Hunter is a criminal. Biden tried to throw President Trump’s sons in jail, but he lets his son off free even though he’s a convict,’ she said.
Then she went after the president for the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago that was a precurser to Trump being charged by a grand jury with illegally retaining national security documents.
‘His FBI and DOJ raided Barron’s bedroom and Melania’s closet at Mar-a-Lago. Joe Biden is a liar and a hypocrite, all the way to the end,’ she said.
One prominent conservative, Charlie Kirk, was prepared to cut Biden some slack.
‘Honestly, I don’t think this is something worth getting mad over. A father should look after his son. Joe has been so mistreated by the Democrat party and disrespected, this is the one thing he’s actually always cared about,’ he wrote.
Others in the media and political class also weighed in.
‘The White House consistently lied about this,’ wrote pollster Nate Silver.
‘Biden’s stubborn insistence on running for reelection was perhaps the singular most important factor in Trump 2.0, and now he’s kicking salt in the wound of the party brand he helped to destroy,’ wrote Silver.
Said Sen.-elect Jim Banks of Kentucky: ‘Joe Biden issued a pardon to Hunter Biden for any crimes that he might have committed since 2014. Why such a specific year? Well, Hunter Biden just so happened to join the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm, in that same year, 2014. So corrupt!’
Wrote Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso: ‘Joe Biden said he would not pardon his son for the crimes he has committed. He lied. Tonight’s pardon is wrong. It proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice.’
Former Barack Obama AG Eric Holder called the pardon ‘warranted.’
‘Here’s the reality. No USAtty would have charged this case given the underlying facts. After a 5 year investigation the facts as discovered only made that clear,’ he wrote. ‘Had his name been Joe Smith the resolution would have been – fundamentally and more fairly – a declination. Pardon warranted. Ask yourself a vastly more important question. Do you really think Kash Patel is qualified to lead the world’s preeminent law enforcement investigative organization? Obvious answer: hell no.’
Providing an all-caps response was Texas GOP Rep. Ronnie Jackson, a former White House who tended to Trump following his the first assassination attempt on him.
‘Today, Biden’s CRACKHEAD SON received a FULL and UNCONDITIONAL PARDON despite a promise that there would be no such thing. Biden and his admin are DISGRACEFUL LIARS!!’ he wrote.
In his own statement, Hunter Biden played up his addiction and recovery while vowing to ‘make amends.’
‘I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport,’ he said.
‘Despite all of this, I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends.’