Sports activities commentator Stephen A. Smith criticized President Biden for the way in which he defined his choice to pardon his son Hunter Biden’s gun and tax prices.
Whereas Smith appeared to know why Biden would wish to grant his son clemency, he questioned the president for claiming his son was focused for political causes.
“It could be argued that’s exactly what you were doing to Donald Trump, what you assisted in doing, seems beyond hypocritical, and that was what disgusted me,” Smith instructed NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo in an interview Monday.
“It wasn’t his decision It wasn’t him pardoning his son. It was the weak, pathetic explanation that he gave,” he added.
The critique got here a day after Biden introduced he signed a pardon for his son in each of his federal circumstances on Sunday, incomes the ire of quite a few political figures. The president had beforehand mentioned he wouldn’t pardon his son, vowing to remain out of the matter.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden mentioned in an announcement.
“There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,” the president added. “In attempting to interrupt Hunter, they’ve tried to interrupt me — and there’s no purpose to consider it’ll cease right here. Sufficient is sufficient.”
Smith prompt that reasoning ought to be utilized to President-elect Trump, who has repeatedly argued that Democrats and the Justice Division have unfairly focused him.
“Now, you can make an argument about the legitimacy of the cases against Donald Trump compared to what wasn’t illegitimate, etc. That’s not the point,” Smith instructed Cuomo. “The point is it was clearly politicized.”
“You had folks on the left who were hellbent on going after Donald Trump because they were determined to make sure that he couldn’t run for reelection, but these elements would get in the way of him possibly winning reelection,” he added later.
Smith additionally joined others in calling for the president to supply a pardon to the previous president for his authorized battles following his election victory.
Trump, following information of the youthful Biden’s clemency, slammed the transfer as a “miscarriage of justice.”
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” the president-elect mentioned in a publish on Reality Social, referring to rioters who’ve been accused of storming the Capitol throughout the riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
The president-elect has signaled that pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters might come sooner or later.
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which additionally owns The Hill.
