President Joe Biden said Thursday he would not offer his son a pardon if he is found guilty on federal gun charges in Delaware, doubling down on the firm denial given by the White House last year, ABC News reported.
Biden, speaking from France, told the outlet in a sit-down interview that he would also accept the outcome of Hunter Biden’s trial, whatever it may be. The president is in Europe to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II’s D-Day.
Hunter Biden is facing three felony charges relating to a 2018 gun purchase he made around the time he has said he was dealing with drug addiction, meaning that he may have lied on an application for the weapon and held it in his possession illegally.
A plea deal on the gun charges and other, tax-related charges fell apart last summer. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered a curt “no” when asked at the time whether the president would consider eventually using his pardon power on the matter.
Opening arguments in the case were presented Tuesday. Hallie Biden, widow of President Biden’s older son Beau, who died in 2015, testified Thursday that Hunter bought crack cocaine within 48 hours of purchasing the gun.
President Biden has said that he unequivocally supports his son.
His response to the idea of using pardon power on family starkly contrasts with the actions of former President Donald Trump, who pardoned a variety of allies, including — in the last weeks of his term — Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump has also made it a habit to deride the nation’s justice system when it acts against his self-interest.
After being found guilty on 34 counts in his New York hush money trial last week, Trump claimed he was actually “a very innocent man,” and called the judge in the case a “tyrant” who “looks like an angel, but he’s really a devil.”
On Thursday, President Biden addressed Trump’s trial after previously calling his antics “reckless.”
“He’s trying to undermine it,” Biden told ABC’s David Muir of the judicial process. “He got a fair trial. The jury spoke.”