Transcript of President Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden

Cnn has learned President Biden will pardon his son, Hunter Biden. Cnn Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleni, I believe, is with us. Jeff, can you hear me?

Jessica, yes.

Okay, what are you learning?

Look, we are just getting a statement from President Joe Biden. He's saying that today he signed a pardon for my son Hunter, and he goes through the reasoning why. Of course, Hunter is facing a sentencing later this month. But this is a really a monumental moment for President Biden. He said several months ago in June, when he was still seeking a re-election, that he would not pardon Hunter Biden. But now we are learning he is. And let's just read through this statement quickly together. He said, Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. 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 watched my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted. So this is a fairly long statement about to four or five paragraphs from President Biden, but really going through why he is making this decision. He also goes on to say this. He said, no reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out because he is my son. And that is wrong. He goes on to say 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 selected prosecution.

So, of course, Jessica, let's take a step back. You obviously cover the Biden campaign along with me. And this is something that Hunter Biden has been dealing with. This is a tax case, a gun case. He went through his trial in Delaware. There was another case in Los Angeles. But this is really the culmination of President Biden really making the decision tonight to sign a pardon for a son, Hunter, not just a commutation of a possible sentence, but a pardon, which certainly will be part of President Biden's legacy going forward.

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. As I'm reading this along with you, Jeff, I think one part at the very end is particularly striking, which is where he says, I have followed a simple principle. Just tell the American people the truth. They'll be fair-minded. Here's the truth. I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process, and it led to a miscarriage of justice. Once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision. It is interesting to also hear him saying, essentially, that the justice system was politicized, which is something we've heard from Republicans and Donald Trump as well.

We certainly have, and important to note that President Biden spent really the weekend with his son Hunter and the rest of the family in Nantucket, where they always do for Thanksgiving. And this is a striking, really ending to this Thanksgiving holiday. And with this statement from the White House we're seeing tonight, it is a official document calling for a full and unconditional pardon for all crimes and punishments facing Robert Hunter Biden. So, Jessica, the sentence that you read is so poignant. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision. We will see, of course, in the coming weeks and months and years if Americans do understand that. But there is no doubt that this is part of the legacy of President Biden's one term in office, certainly something he did not want. He hoped to run pre-election. He obviously stepped away from that months ago. But clearly, there was pressure inside the family. We were told, really in recent weeks, that Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, was very supportive of the President doing something like this. The President was not sure, but we clearly have seen now he has come to this, a decision to pardon his son, Hunter.

Yeah. Jeff, of course, we don't have to remind people how close-knit this family is and that Hunter is his only surviving son, that they are, of course, very close. We've heard many stories about the last several years, how they talk daily and many times a day. Stick with us, Jeff. I want to go to our senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, who is back with us. Evan, what are you hearing from sources as we're getting this news tonight that President Biden has granted this pardon to his son, Hunter Biden?

Well, certainly, Jessica, this is something that a lot of us were anticipating. We were waiting for it, even despite the fact that the President has said repeatedly that he was not planning. He was not planning to give his son a pardon, would not commute his sentences. Keep in mind that he was due to be sentenced in the Los Angeles case dealing with his tax problems. That was coming in the next couple of weeks. And so all of this is coming to a head. And so we've been watching and seeing what the President of the United States would do. I think, as you and Jeff were just talking about, I think we'll see what the public, the American public, arrives at. But I think it's really remarkable to step back and just read some of what President Biden is saying in here. Keep in mind, he took office in 2021, promising to restore the institutions and try to restore faith in those institutions, including the system of justice, obviously, the Justice Department. Those are among the big priorities with him. That's why he chose Merrick Garland, a former judge, to be attorney general. Then if you look now where we are, what the President of the United States is saying is that essentially there are problems, there are political problems with the prosecutions that are being brought by his own Justice Department.

I think that's going to be a very, very tough pill for people to swallow on this issue because obviously it is a thing that we keep hearing from Donald Trump, and it's the thing that animates the Trump team over the next four years. You're already hearing from them that they want to destroy some of those institutions that they believe are stacked against them. To see President Biden go to the same territory is a remarkable turn to watch.

Then, Evan, just legally help people understand just remind them this full pardon, what does that effectively mean? Again, that that covers, as I understand it, all of the charges against him.

Right. As I understand and as I read this, it goes to all of the crimes that he has now been convicted of. He was convicted of gun charges, gun-related charges in Delaware over the summer. I was there for that trial, and I also was in Los Angeles for the tax trial. Those things were both Well, just before it was going to trial, obviously, he ended up having a plea. But this would take care of all of those. Republicans have said, by the way, Jessica, that they want to take another look at Hunter Biden when Donald Trump takes office in January. So we'll see whether they can come up with something new that they can pursue Joe and Hunter Biden over. But for now, what this means is those charges that the Special Counsel, David Weiss, has pursued against Hunter Biden, which are gun charges in Delaware, as well as his tax charges in Los Angeles, both of those get wiped away clean.

All right, Evan Perez, stay with us. I want to go now to Isaac Dover, who is somebody who has covered Joe Biden, who has interviewed him. Isaac, I first want to play a clip that we have of what Biden said about potentially pardoning his son earlier this year, and then we'll come back to you. So let's play that clip.

Let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is? Yes.

And have you ruled out a pardon for your son? Yes. You have.

And so obviously, I think that's when he was running for re-election and the political environment was very different for him. As someone who has covered him for years, walk us through What his thought process, how he thinks about these things. We know, per our reporting, that this was happening a lot of it over the weekend. But tell us more about how you think he arrived at this decision.

Yeah, this is something that has been a great pain to Joe Biden for many years and was weighing on him as he decided whether to run for re-election and then was deciding whether to stay in the race earlier in the year. He believes that Hunter Biden is was being prosecuted for these crimes because he put the spotlight on the Biden family by running for President. He put the spotlight on his son. He believes that there are things that Hunter has dealt with, in some ways, some of the issues that he's had over the years, that Biden wasn't there in the same way that he might have been as a father, that some of the pressures that came on him from being in the limelight because of who his father was. Joe Biden has this, but there's really no disputing the change in position here from the clip you played to the decision that's been made.