The White House offered more information about why President Joe Biden changed his mind and pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, on Sunday after saying he wouldn’t for so long.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took questions from reporters on Air Force One on Monday, during which she offered more information on Biden’s seemingly abrupt decision over the weekend.
Of the reasons she provided, fears that President-elect Donald Trump would continue to try and prosecute Hunter Biden was a main factor.
“One of the reasons the president did the pardon is because it didn’t seem like his political opponents would let go of it. It didn’t seem like they would move on. And so, this is why this president took this action,” Jean-Pierre said.
She went on to say that Biden wrestled with the decision for some time, but his worries about political persecution played into his decision.
“He believes in the Department of Justice, but he also believes that his son was singled out politically, and so he made this decision,” Jean-Pierre added.
The president and his son were both in Nantucket, Massachusetts, over the weekend celebrating Thanksgiving with family.
Before the election, Trump had said that if he won, he would not rule out pardoning Hunter Biden, saying, at the time, he also thought Biden’s son was the target of political persecution.
“I wouldn’t take it off the books. See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously, despite what — and Hunter’s a bad boy. There’s no question about it,” Trump said in October.
For more than a year, Jean-Pierre, the president, and others connected to him insisted that no pardon would be coming for Hunter Biden. On Monday, Jean-Pierre offered insight into what changed.
“He thought about this this weekend. This is a decision that he made this weekend. He agonized over it,” she said. “What he watched his son go through, an unfair process, being singled out.”
Hunter Biden was facing two upcoming sentencing dates, one on Dec. 12 for his conviction on federal gun charges and another on Dec. 16 for another criminal case in which he pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion.
In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden said his son was “treated differently” and used as a means to attack him.