Republicans Say Biden Is A 'liar' After He Pardons His Son, Hunter

Republicans called President Joe Biden a “liar” for pardoning his son, who was convicted on gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax fraud this summer.

The decision comes after the president said that he would "abide by the jury's decision" in an interview ahead of his son's conviction in June, when Biden still topped the Democratic ticket.

“Joe Biden has lied from start to finish," said House Oversight Chair James Comer in a post on X. "It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.”

The Kentucky Republican was one of the chairs of the months-long impeachment inquiry focused on business deals of Hunter Biden and other family members.

Sen. John Barrasso, the number three Senate Republican and incoming GOP whip, said in a post on X, "Tonight’s pardon is wrong. It proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called Biden's pardon an "admission that Hunter is a criminal."

And Texas Republicans were outraged. Rep. Ronny Jackson referred to the Bidens as “DISGRACEFUL LIARS!!” in his post, and Rep. Wesley Hunt said, “Joe Biden just did the thing he told us he would never do, PARDONING his son for crimes he and the majority of the media told us he never committed.”

Democrats, meanwhile, defended the president's decision.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under former President Barack Obama, called the pardon “warranted,” saying, “No USAtty would have charged this case given the underlying facts.”

And Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), one of the impeachment managers against President-elect Donald Trump, told CNN earlier in the day that any possibility of a pardon for Hunter Biden, could be rooted in taking issue with the case itself.

“There is a defense called selective prosecution, if you can show that the government has a set of cases that all look alike, but they pick one person out to prosecute based on, say, a political animus towards the person, which essentially is the claim that Donald Trump has been making about why he was targeted,” Raskin said, indicating that Hunter Biden may have been targeted because of his relationship to the president. “The power exists for the president to show mercy for people who have committed crimes and either suffered some kind of injustice in the process or the punishment is disproportionate.”

Not all Democrats were willing to support the president’s Sunday action. Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) spoke out against the pardon, saying, “I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong.” The former Phoenix mayor continued, “This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he sympathised with the president’s “natural desire to help his son” by pardoning him, but added, “I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.”

Before the pardon by his father, Hunter Biden faced criminal sentencing in two separate cases, the first of which was scheduled to take place in Delaware on Dec. 12 on gun charges. He also faced sentencing from a California judge in the tax case on Dec. 16. In that case, he pleaded guilty to not paying $1.4 million in taxes over several years.

Jordain Carney and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.