America's Talking - President Biden Under Fire for Pardoning Hunter Biden

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

(The Center Square) – 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulip, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. President Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, is being criticized across the country by Democrats and Republicans alike. Hunter pleaded guilty over the summer to federal charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2020, and a jury in Delaware convicted the president's son of illegally buying and owning a gun while using crack cocaine. Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau chief for the center square. Casey, what's the fallout been from President Biden's decision, especially after he and his press

secretary repeatedly said he wouldn't pardon Hunter Biden? Well, Dan, the Democrats lost the moral high ground with this decision. This is, you know, I mean, in some sense, I don't know if anyone can fault a father for pardoning his son. I'm not sure I wouldn't do the same thing in his position. But the problem is that President Biden has spent this entire campaign cycle lecturing the American people that no one is above the law. No one is above the law. He said it ad nauseum. No one is above the law. Of course, referring to his opponent, President-elect now Donald Trump, who's faced all these, you know, I'll say he has faced some, you know, real charges, but it wasn't.

crack cocaine and buying guns and not paying his taxes, you know. It was questions around some kind of niche, niche classified documents things that a lot of people do. Biden did the same thing and wasn't prosecuted, et cetera. There was more to it. But he wasn't cracked cocaine and gun purchases and all that. So what Democrats lost is the high ground. And I think he's put a lot of Democrats in a bad position. He made a lot of pundits look pretty stupid who were also lecturing the American people that, you know, that Biden would never do something like this. Because part of the argument against Trump is that Biden is a return to normalcy. He's not going to be, you know, corrupt or have the favoring of his friends and allies the way that

Trump allegedly would. And that kind of went out the window. It also gives Trump a blank check, Dan, to pardon a lot of people who are being, you know, there's a lot of Trump allies who have been prosecuted actually. And the January 6th crew, there's, you know, first. from people who actually went in the Capitol to people who were involved in, you know, like the electors who were casting ballots for Trump. And, you know, some of them, even the lawyers have been prosecuted who tried to help Trump challenge legally challenged the 2020 election results. So there's this holds Trump camp that I think now Trump has a window when taking office to pardon all of them.

And they really can't say much to them, I think, because of the Hunter Biden thing. But Dan, I mean, haven't we all? bought illegally purchased a gun while doing crack cocaine after we didn't pay a million dollars in taxes. I mean, isn't that just the American story? I can't speak for you, Casey, but that I have not. Hunter was facing sentencing on December 12th in the federal gun case in Delaware, December 16th in the tax evasion case. So he was just really days away from possibly facing jail time. Who knows what he would have been sentenced to?

Maybe it wasn't going to be jail. time. But what's, what just as interesting about this pardon is that it's a blanket pardon for what, like 10 years, including dating back to President Biden's term in office as vice president under President Obama and House Republicans had, had an ongoing investigation in Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings that they allege financially benefited the Biden family overall, including President Joe Biden. That makes it even more curious, doesn't it? Of course.

I mean, the Oversight Committee led by James Comer, the chairman out of Kentucky. He has had this investigation going on for a while now, and he's found, I believe it's over $25 million pouring in from entities in countries around the world like Ukraine. So, you know, questionable country, of course, China, very questionable. And apparently Hunter Biden was, you know, trying to. traveling around the world, selling something to the tunes of millions of dollars to these countries. Of course, he infamously ended up on the Burisma board in Ukraine, where his credentials were kind of questioned. How did he end up on this giant energy companies board just so happens to be, you know, Joe Biden's son. And now we're sending all this money to Ukraine. It's just kind of all questionable.

And Democrats have, you know, up and down, deny that there's anything to this. This said, this is all just nonsense. But this pardon pretty much covers the entire time that that enterprise was going on. So whether they knew secretly that there was something that could be prosecuted or whether they just feared Trump would try to make something out of it, they covered their bases by extending this pardon back to, I think, 2014. And as you said, of course, Biden repeatedly has said no one is above the law talking particularly about former President Trump, President-elect now Trump. and the crimes his Justice Department have accused Trump of and a couple of states' attorneys in New York and Georgia. Those charges are still pending. What is President-elect Trump is going to be in office here in just over a month? What do you think this decision by President Biden to pardon his son?

What will it mean for President-elect Trump when he's inaugurated after he's inaugurated? You referenced the January 6 convictions. Do you see this as an open path for Trump to pardon his allies? Definitely, because of the nature of Hunter Biden's pardon. It wasn't just for those specific crimes. It was just anything he may have done since 2014. It's pretty incredible pardon. So it just adds to Trump's momentum, Dan.

Trump has so much momentum. He has the popular vote. He has the House. He has the Senate. He has basically. embarrassed all those who stood against him, especially the establishment Republican never Trumpers. They're totally irrelevant now. People like Liz Cheney just kind of been discredited at this point. So many of his enemies who stood up against him during the first term or just have been disemboweled

politically. And now any maybe attempt to make Trump have some kind of scruples has been also just kind of undercut by what the president did, pardoning his son. And so this just kind of lays the groundwork for Trump to basically get away with doing more of what his agenda is. And some people say get away with some say, finally, it's happening. But he's going to, I think he basically has a blank check going in on day one. Thank you for joining us today. Casey, listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecenter square.com.