Former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill on Monday lamented the "ammunition" President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter will give to Trump world.
"When I saw this pardon last night, I kind of wished I wasn’t going to be on TV today. Although, if I was going to be on TV, I’m sure glad I’m on TV with you," McCaskill said to Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House."
"Here’s the thing," she added. "Do I understand Joe Biden’s pardon? Yes, completely. I get it. It’s completely understandable. But the ‘both sides’ folks out there have just gotten some really powerful ammunition. And for that reason, I hate it."
She added that she doesn’t "blame" Biden for what he did, calling him a "wonderful man" who "loves his family desperately." Despite that, she regretted how he had repeatedly insisted he would not pardon his son.
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She said, "For him to say repeatedly he would not do this and then do it, it allows the side of the mountain of lies and scandal — I mean, the infinite amount of horrible corruption and lack of integrity that just peppers the world of Trump — it somehow allows them to say, ‘Well, see, he’s just the same, Joe Biden is no different.’"
"Yes, Joe Biden is different than Donald Trump. He is not the same," McCaskill said. "I just wish that Biden would have said all along, ‘I will pardon my son because this is a political persecution.’ The fact that he said he wouldn’t and that he did now, I hate that. I just hate it."
Biden announced that he pardoned his son Sunday night, claiming that the charges against Hunter were unfair.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," Biden said in a statement. "From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted."
The announcement came after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had insisted multiple times over the last few years that he would accept the result of Hunter’s federal trials.
Other Democrats and liberal media figures also criticized Biden’s decision, even while defending the president.
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"For those of us who have been out there for a few years now yelling about what a unique threat Donald Trump is, for Joe Biden to do something like this: nobody’s above the law, we’ve been screaming," former Congressman Joe Walsh said on MSNBC Sunday night.
He added, "Donald Trump lies every time he opens his mouth, we’ve been screaming. Joe Biden repeatedly lied about this. The politicization of the justice system, Donald Trump and his people have been screaming. That’s exactly what Biden said here."
