JR Afternoon with Chris Renwick
Biden’s Bold Move to Shield Hunter Sparks Bipartisan Backlash
All right, coming up at 2.35, we've got Luku's talking. And the realities are after saying, over and over and over and over and over again that Joe Biden had no plans to pardon Hunter Biden, Corinne Jean Pierre had to go out and face the White House press corps saying that the president was not going to go out and pardon his son Hunter Biden. And then you hear from many news outlets, Democrats getting on the airwaves saying that, oh, well, this is a great thing that he respects the rule of law. And this is somebody who wouldn't get in the middle of this. Well, now he has because the president this weekend decided to pardon his son, Hunter Biden. Let's get a perspective with somebody who is in the midst of this quite often. Matt visor, the White House reporter with the Washington Post, Matt, it's good to have you. It's the fallout from this that you're hearing over the last 24 hours or so. Yeah, there's a decent amount of fallout on both sides. Actually, I mean, Biden is getting criticized from a number of Democrats who have expressed concerns with this decision saying that it's such a bad precedent for the president to be protecting a family member and intervening in this case in his legal matter. And Republicans are pretty critical as well. That's to be more expected. I mean, they've been sort of targeting Hunter for a long time. So the more surprising part is actually that Biden is being criticized for this by some members of the don't part. I know he released a statement and he tried to provide some sort of clarity. I think he fell short of it. What are you hearing from Corinne Jean-Pierre? Has she come forward and talked about this yet? So she had a briefing aboard Air Force One. We should note first that Biden made this announcement last night, sent out paper on it, you know, a statement, and then boarded the plane for a multi-day trip to Africa. So he sort of en route Corinne Jean-Pierre briefed reporters on the plane. She didn't elaborate too much on Biden's rationale or really, quite frankly, answer for the reason, you know, that they have repeatedly said that he would not do this and that he, you know, changed his mind. She just mostly said that over the weekend, you know, he came to this decision on his own. The interesting thing here is the text, the text of the pardon talks about that the pardon encompasses all offenses, quote, that Hunter Biden has committed or may have committed or taken part during the period of January 1st, 2020, 2014 through December 1st, 2024. It's a very broad way of executing this pardon, is it not? Yeah, absolutely. It's for more than a 10-year period of time and a lot of times when you think of pardons, you think of a specific instance, a specific crime, a specific conviction, in this case, it's pretty broad. It's over a time period. And it may not, it may be addressing things that we don't even know about at the moment. You know, so there's a lot that's been investigated over this time period. We know the universe of things that investigators on Capitol Hill, okay, there's been a number of congressional investigations, there's been a number of law enforcement investigations. We sort of know that general universe and where law enforcement, where prosecutors settled on two instances where they prosecuted, they charged Hunter with different crimes. So we know those, but this is broader than that. This is for anything during that time period, which if you listen to White House officials and the president, there's a concern that Donald Trump, when he takes office, may try to pursue other avenues related to Hunter Biden during that time period, this pardon is meant to take that option away. Well, and the interesting thing here is, as you mentioned it, to me, you know, my antennas go up when you go, well, anything that may have happened. And it's like, well, okay, you're right, we know the kind of world that they've been investigating, but is there something else here? Is there something else that we don't know and when you, when you, when this pardon span such a long term, you know, it's one thing to pardon the tax issue or the gun, the gun charge, fair enough, I suppose. But the realities are when it's such a broad, a pardon, I think my antennas go up. So I imagine others do too. Yeah. And this is a time period for people being following this closely that largely encompasses every aspect of things that people may have heard about, Hunter. It includes this time at Burisma, oil and gas company in Ukraine that he was involved with. And it encompasses all of his foreign business dealings that have hit any sort of controversy, you know, in addition, as you mentioned, anything that we may not have heard about, you know, so it is pretty all encompassing for those 10, that 10-year period to protect his son from any sort of prosecution at all. You know, and I think the optics here, when you pair this pardon with the way it's structured, I want to go back to something you said because pardoning your son in this moment when there is potentially a lot of smoke, maybe not fire yet, but a lot of smoke, then you partner it with, you know, it's not uncommon for people to pardon family members and you highlighted that in your piece. But I think that when you kind of look at it in totality, that's where I think people start to really question this. Yeah. And I think, too, there's an interesting debate where on a personal level, I think people can grasp this in terms of a father wanting to protect his son. So there's a personal aspect to this and the Biden family is very close and Hunter's addiction issues. You know, there's a whole personal saga here wrapped up in this. There's a separate matter around the politics of this and, you know, is it something politically that you should, you should do as president of the United States, who has made the saying of no one is above the law, you know, of a core part of your political identity and restoring faith in the Department of Justice, a core part of your presidency. I think that's where you're getting some of the criticism. Well, Ann, you pair that with the things that he said in his statement, which basically he was a political target, which is something that Donald Trump has used for the number of years now as a, you know, a lightning rod of, well, this is why they're coming after me. These are why these charges are coming. And the left and particularly the administration has poo-pooed that saying, well, look, if you committed wrong acts and you should be held accountable, the same thing applies here. And he talks about Hunter Biden, his son, being a political target, which is an interesting kind of turn to this. Yeah. And his language was quite sharp in that statement in ridiculing the Department of Justice, which he is president overseas, you know, he appointed Merrick Garland. He stuck by David Weiss, the special counsel, who was pursuing these crimes that Hunter Biden committed and was sound guilty of, you know, so President Biden does have some responsibility over how this all has unfolded. And now with 50 or 60 days left in office, he's sort of saying what they did was wrong and they targeted my son. So he's pardoning. I have just 30 seconds left here. Is there, is there concern amongst Democrats how this has played out? Is there concern about Joe Biden's legacy because of this? Does he even care at this point? What's the fall out there? I think there is concern, I mean, I think there is a legacy aspect to this. But I think for Joe Biden, I mean, he's no doubt factor that into his calculations around protecting his family over a legacy part. I think for the party, Democrats, Democrats were at large, are concerned with the precedent that this sets and the ability for Donald Trump, who's about to take office, to point to this as a signal for what he can now do, you know, and once he takes office and the types of pardons and the things that he may be able to do with his Department of Justice come January. Matt Visor with The Washington Post, thank you, my friend. I always appreciate our chats. I hope we do it again soon. Thank you guys. Yep, you got it. That's Matt Visor, his piece in The Washington Post is a good one. You should check it out. In the meantime, we'll come back, we'll get to a look who's talking and I want to get your thoughts. I'll give you mine on the Joe Biden pardoning as we continue here on J.R.
December 2, 2024 ~ Chris Renwick and Matt Viser discuss the controversy surrounding President Biden’s broad pardon of Hunter Biden, highlighting concerns about precedent, political integrity, and potential future implications.