Republican lawmakers erupted in public shortly after President Joe Biden announced that his son Hunter Biden would be pardoned.
President-elect Donald Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, responded to the announcement without naming either the president or his son.
The failed witch hunts against President Trump show that the radical prosecutors and the DOJ, which is run by Democrats, are using the justice system as a weapon, Cheung said in a statement.
“That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people,” he said.
Soon after, Trump responded to the news in public by calling for prosecutions related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“Are the J-6 Hostages freed because Joe pardoned Hunter? They have been locked up for years.” What an injustice and abuse of power!” Trump said on Truth Social.
A lot of Republicans in Congress who have been against Hunter Biden’s behavior for a long time quickly attacked the decision on social media, calling it an attempt to “avoid accountability” and calling the president a “hypocrite.”
On X, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., talked about the federal raid on Trump’s home in Florida in connection with the now-dismissed classified documents case against Trump.
“His FBI and DOJ raided Barron’s bedroom and Melania’s closet at Mar-a-Lago,” she said. “Joe Biden is a liar and a hypocrite, all the way to the end.”
On X, Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs said that Biden “will go down as one of the most corrupt presidents in American history.”
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight Committee, said on X, “It is unfortunate that President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing.” Comer’s committee has asked the Justice Department to bring criminal charges against Hunter Biden.
It “shocked” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to hear the news.
“I’m shocked Pres Biden pardoned his son Hunter bc he said many many times he wouldn’t & I believed him Shame on me,” he said.
“Most Americans can understand why a dad might want to forgive his son, even if they do not agree with him,” he said on X. “What they can’t forgive is Biden lying about it repeatedly before the election.”
More than half of the first responses came from Republicans, but some Democrats also spoke out. Gov. Jared Polis, D-Colorado, said Biden’s choice was wrong.
Polits told X, “As a father, I understand why President @JoeBiden would want to help his son by pardoning him, but I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country.”
“This sets a bad example that could be used against him by future presidents, and it will hurt his reputation.”
In the same way, Arizona Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton said he thought Biden “got this one wrong.”
Stanton said on X, “This was not a politically motivated prosecution.” “Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
But before Biden made his announcement, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland talked about the possibility of a pardon earlier Sunday. He did this to give an idea of what a pardon might be for.
Raskin told CNN, “There is a defense called selective prosecution.” “The president has the power to show mercy for people who have broken the law but either suffered some kind of injustice or are being punished too harshly.
This is what Donald Trump has been saying about why he was singled out for prosecution: ‘If you can show that the government has a set of cases that all look the same, but they choose one person to prosecute based on, say, a political animus towards the person,
Biden used similar arguments in his statement to explain his choice to say that his son was “being selectively and unfairly prosecuted.”
NBC News was the first to report that Biden was going to pardon his son. He had told the public many times that he would not forgive him.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” he said in the statement.
“There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution.”
Late this month, Hunter Biden was supposed to get his sentence for being found guilty of federal gun charges and federal tax evasion charges.
The charges were for two different situations. On the gun charges, he was found guilty by a jury after pleading guilty to federal tax evasion charges.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said that people might feel sorry for Biden even though they do not agree with the move.