(Headline USA) White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say on Monday why she and President Joe Biden repeatedly lied to the American public about the president’s intention to pardon his son, Hunter Biden.
Jean-Pierre took questions from the press on Air Force One less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden announced he was issuing a sweeping pardon for Hunter Biden that absolves the First Son of all alleged crimes committed since 2014.
The pardon came despite numerous assurances from Jean-Pierre and the White House that Biden would not pardon Hunter Biden after he was convicted for tax and gun crimes.
“You have said repeatedly yourself since the election, and the president has said for months, no pardon was coming,” one reporter said Jean-Pierre. “I wanted to ask you, could those statements now be seen as lies to the American people?”
The press secretary refused to answer directly, instead insisting that Biden “always believes” he should be “truthful to the American people.”
Jean-Pierre then suggested that Biden changed his mind on pardoning Hunter Biden.
“If you look at the end of his statement, and he actually says that in the first line of the last paragraph. He lays out how he came to this decision,” Jean-Pierre continued. “He came to this decision this weekend, so let’s be very clear about that.”
She added Joe Biden struggled with making the decision.
“And he said he wrestled with this, because he believes in the justice system but he also believes that the war of politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” she said.
Notably, Jean-Pierre didn’t shoot down the idea of further pardons before Joe Biden leaves office next month, noting the president is “thinking through that process very thoroughly.”
“There’s a process in place, obviously,” she told reporters. “And so, I’m not going to get ahead of the president on this, but you could expect more announcements, more pardons, clemency at the end of this term.”
One possible pardon that could come is for James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, who also has been implicated in the Biden family influence peddling scheme.
