Democrats left fuming over Biden’s decision to pardon his son — after he repeatedly said he wouldn’t
CNN
President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son has left some Democrats fuming over his choice to repeatedly and unequivocally claim that he would never take that step, even though a pardon long appeared possible to Hunter Biden’s legal team.
President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son has left some Democrats fuming over his choice to repeatedly and unequivocally claim that he would never take that step, even though a pardon long appeared possible to Hunter Biden’s legal team. Multiple officials who recently worked for Joe Biden said they never believed the president or White House aides speaking on his behalf when they insisted in recent months that a pardon for Hunter Biden was off the table. “Anyone who was even close to the top knew that he was probably going to do this. Why did we pretend otherwise?” a former senior West Wing aide said. A different former senior White House official said they and others around them had felt “certain” the president would ultimately pardon his son, while another ex-administration official put it this way: “It was extremely, painfully obvious that this was where things would end up.” But even as some of Joe Biden’s closest allies were bewildered by the president’s eleventh-hour pardon, Hunter Biden and his lawyers long believed that one was possible, multiple sources told CNN. That comes despite the White House saying that a final decision on the pardon was reached only this weekend. The president’s Sunday evening move to announce the pardon came after he spent time with his family, including Hunter, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, over the Thanksgiving holiday and has led lawmakers in Biden’s own party to criticize him. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said as recently as November 7 that a pardon for Hunter Biden was not being considered.
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