Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis seemed baffled by the question of whether he will pardon Hunter Biden if he becomes president, during an interview on Thursday with NBC News.
DeSantis’ past comments that he would be open to pardoning former president Trump were questioned by Dasha Burns of NBC. The former President Trump is due to stand trial in December for two federal charges relating to his handling of classified materials and his role in the events leading up to Jan. 6 as well as two rounds of state-level accusations.
The GOP candidate explained that pardoning Trump would help “move this country forward.” He cited the pardoning by former President Ford of his ousted successor Richard Nixon as an example to “heal” the country.
Burns asked DeSantis, in the spirit of preventing more national division, whether he would request that GOP lawmakers stop their investigation into Biden. DeSantis refused, saying Biden had “not been held accountable” for anything.
DeSantis stated that “different standards of justice have been applied to these investigations” because of the money that has come into the family.
Burns replied, “Heal the country for Trump but not Biden.” Would you pardon Hunter Biden?
“Why?” DeSantis was puzzled before he exclaimed, “No!”
Burns replied: “Same Question — I Mean, In the Spirit of Healing the Country and Moving Forward.”
DeSantis stated, “They are not the same things.” “You’ve got a current government that is prosecuting a former president. This is not the same as a Hunter Biden trial. Hunter Biden wasn’t a leader of an opposition party. “It is not good for the country that we are doing this.”
He continued: “Hunter Biden would have been prosecuted long ago if he had not been connected to the D.C. ruler class.” These aren’t the same as, say, Ford or Nixon, and some of what we see with Donald Trump.
Burns asked the same questions in separate interviews with Nikki Haley, a fellow GOP rival. Both said that they would pardon Trump.
Burns called Hunter Biden “the president’s child” when he questioned Haley about the pardoning. “Let’s see what the charges will be,” the former U.N. Ambassador responded, alluding to the chaos in the courtroom that had previously occurred.
Ramaswamy said “no” to any convictions related to the foreign currency the son of the president received or a potential bribery scheme involving his father.
