President Joe Biden’s decision to issue a full and unconditional pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, has sparked both criticism and praise.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse stated he would not “pile on” to the issue.
“There’s plenty that’s been said about that, and it’s going to continue to be chattered about,” Whitehouse said on Boston Public Radio on Wednesday. But the senator said that the reasoning Biden provided for the pardon — blaming the Department of Justice’s handling of Hunter’s case — was “unfortunate.”
Whitehouse believes Biden should have been more direct in explaining his decision, suggesting that the influence of Trump’s speculative cabinet picks — including Matt Gaetz, who has since withdrawn, and Pam Bondi — played a role in the president’s choice.
He argued that Biden should have said, “I’m not going to subject my son to completely phony Department of Justice leadership like this because they would just come after him.”
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley also weighed in on the controversy. She defended the president’s right to pardon his son, but expanded the conversation to include broader clemency efforts.
“Hunter Biden was targeted because he was the president’s son, and he was pardoned because he was the president’s son,” Pressley said.
She urged Biden to use his executive powers to address broader issues within the criminal justice system.
“I’m calling on him to use that authority in this moment to use the tool of clemency to reunite people with their families by the Christmas holiday,” she said.
The issue is personal to Pressley, who shared that her father was incarcerated for crimes he committed while battling a substance use disorder.
“My father should have been met with compassion, on demand care and treatment,” she said. “And instead, his disease was criminalized and it caused great harm and destabilization to our family.”
“This is about people who are the victim of sentencing disparities,” Pressley said. “This is about cannabis convictions. This is about nonviolent offenders, people who are disabled and elderly who pose no threat to society, women who have been incarcerated because they were defending themselves against their abusers.”
Pressley emphasized that clemency is not just a matter of justice, but also a legacy issue. The president has previously used his clemency power, pardoning thousands convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and former service members convicted by the now-repealed ban on gay sex in the military.
“He’s got to act now,” Pressley said.
