OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced some awkward moments on Thursday after she was forced to respond to criticism about Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son, Hunter Biden, from a former top aide to the president.
Anita Dunn, whose guidance was so crucial to Biden that she served during two separate periods and was the first senior aide to depart after he transitioned to Kamala Harris, delivered a sharp critique of her former boss at a post-election summit, the DailyMail reported.
This led to a tense moment when Jean-Pierre was asked to defend Biden’s actions from criticism within the president’s inner circle, and it came on the same day Biden pardoned 39 individuals and commuted the sentences of 1,500 non-violent offenders, including several convicted fraudsters.
“I absolutely agree with the president’s decision here. I do not agree with the way it was done,” Dunn said at a New York Times/DealBook event posted online on Wednesday.
“I don’t agree with the timing, and I don’t agree frankly with the attack on our judicial system,” she said, adding: “Had this pardon been done at the end of the term in the context of compassion the way many pardons will be done, I’m sure – and many commutations will be done – I think it would have been a different story.”
Dunn also criticized the strategic timing, which undermined Democratic efforts to target President-elect Donald Trump’s FBI pick, Kash Patel, who has promised to pursue the ‘deep state’ and has published an enemies list in his book.
“In the middle of a Kash Patel weekend, kind of throwing this into the middle of it was exceptionally poor timing and … the argument is one that I think many observers are concerned about: A president who ran to restore the rule of law, who has upheld the rule of law, who has really defended the rule of law kind of saying, ‘Well, maybe not right now,'” Dunn said.
Critics of Biden have said that he actually weaponized the justice system against his and the Democratic Party’s political enemies, to include the president-elect.
But Dunn’s remarks forced Jean-Pierre to respond on Thursday. “I will respond in this way. She also agreed that Hunter Biden, and I quote, absolutely deserves a pardon. So she supported that action.” The spokeswoman then pivoted to Biden’s pardons, saying that he is “providing the most individual commutations, and I think that matters.”
As the events unfolded, Joe Biden granted a comprehensive pardon to Hunter for tax and gun-related offenses just before embarking on a trip to Africa, without providing detailed explanations for the controversial decision. However, Biden’s pardon was unprecedented in that it included any and all actions dating back 11 years — to 2014, or about the time Hunter Biden’s “business” dealings began in Ukraine.
Trump quickly capitalized on the action to reinforce his demand for pardoning individuals involved in the January 6 events. He has announced plans to review each case personally and intends to pardon some offenders shortly after being sworn into office.
During the briefing, Jean-Pierre addressed questions about Biden’s pardons but did not dismiss the possibility of Biden issuing “preemptive pardons” for officials that Trump views as political adversaries, including Hillary Clinton and former Representative Liz Cheney.
During an interview with Time magazine, Trump said the Jan. 6 pardons would go to “nonviolent” people, most likely.
“We’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. A vast majority should not be in jail, and they’ve suffered gravely,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came during an in-depth conversation on Nov. 25 that was part of the magazine’s selection of Trump as its “Person of the Year.”
