(Headline USA) Former President Bill Clinton insisted this week that his pardon of his half-brother Roger Clinton was in no way comparable to President Joe Biden’s pardon of his embattled son, Hunter Biden.
Speaking at the New York Times Dealbook Summit this week, Clinton partially defended Joe Biden’s decision to grant Hunter Biden a sweeping pardon that covers all criminal behavior Hunter Biden may have engaged in since 2014, including the tax and gun crimes he was convicted of this year.
“I personally believe that the president is almost certainly right that his son received completely different treatment than he would have if he hadn’t been the president’s son, in this kind of case,” Clinton said.
However, while Clinton clarified he was not “directly criticizing” Joe Biden, he rejected the argument that Biden’s pardon was in line with past precedent, including Clinton’s decision in 2001 to pardon Roger Clinton, who was sentenced to more than a year in prison after pleading guilty to selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.
“My brother did 14 months in federal prison for something he did when he was 20,” he said.
Clinton added that his reasoning wasn’t motivated by keeping Roger Clinton from facing additional consequences, but by questions of whether his younger half-brother would “ever be able to vote again? Will he ever be able to have normal citizenship responsibilities?” Clinton explained.
When asked if Biden’s pardon of Hunter would hurt Democrats’ standing, Clinton brushed off that concern.
“We had a lot better record than Republicans did, didn’t we? And what good did it do us?” he said. “I mean, nobody believes anybody anymore.”
Several Democrats, including leftist California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have broken with Joe Biden over the pardon, argued it could have long-term consequences.
The White House, however, has continued to defend the pardon.
“Hunter was singled out, and because his last name was Biden, because he was the president’s son. That’s what we saw,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday. “And so the president believed enough is enough, and the president took action, and he also believes that they tried to break his son in order to break him.”
