By Dan Donahue\NBC News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre today defended President Joe Biden’s decision to issue a “full and unconditional” pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, on federal firearm and tax charges, despite his repeated insistence that he would not do so.
Biden believes “raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” in his son’s case, Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight to Angola.
The president issued a statement Sunday, reading in part: “There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
Jill Biden, during the unveiling today of her final White House Christmas decorations as first lady, told reporters that “of course” she supports the president’s decision to pardon their son.
The pardon has prompted outrage among Republicans, and some Democrats have also voiced opposition to the move. President-elect Donald Trump reacted to the news by raising the prospect of pardons for January 6th defendants. At the end of his first term in office, Trump pardoned several of his allies including Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whom he selected over the weekend to serve as U.S. ambassador to France.
