Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was caught off guard Thursday when a reporter asked him whether he’d pardon Hunter Biden.
Speaking with NBC News’ Dasha Burns, he was originally asked about the prospect of pardoning former President Donald Trump. He responded by saying he’d support a pardon for Trump to “move the country forward” and “heal the country” like President Gerald Ford did ages ago with his predecessor, Richard Nixon.
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Latching on to that idea, Burns then asked DeSantis just how far he’d be willing to go to heal the country. For example, would he be willing to ask Republicans in Congress to stop investigating President Joe Biden? This the governor flatly rejected, arguing that the president “has not been held accountable for anything.”
“There’ve been different standards of justice that have been applied on these investigations because the amount of money that’s come into their family — how does that happen where you have millions of dollars that’s coming into the family… we weren’t even scratching the surface on that,” he continued.
Burns responded by suggesting he’s a hypocrite.
“So heal the country when it comes to Trump, but not when it comes to Biden,” she said.
“What about Hunter Biden, would you pardon him?” she then asked, prompting shock from the governor.
“Why?” he asked in confusion. “No!”
Burns responded by saying it’d help “move the country forward” and “heal the country,” but DeSantis didn’t buy her shtick.
“Those are not the same things,” he said. “You have a current administration that is prosecuting the former president. That is not the same thing as a Hunter Biden prosecution. Hunter Biden was not one of the leaders of the opposition political party. So when you have that, that is not healthy for this country to be doing that.”
“If [Hunter Biden] had been not connected to the D.C. ruling class, he would have been prosecuted a long time ago. But those are not equivalent things in terms of, like, a Ford and Nixon and then, versus some of the things that we’re seeing with Donald Trump,” he added.
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Reporter: “What about Hunter Biden — would you pardon him?”
DeSantis, in shock at the stupidity of the question: “Why? No.” pic.twitter.com/nybt5kJAuR
— DeSantis War Room (@DeSantisWarRoom) January 5, 2024
This comes days after DeSantis confirmed to a disbelieving NBC News that he would pardon Trump. Asked by reporters about a pardon, he said he’d “already” answered that question “long ago,” according to NBC News.
“I think we got to move on as a country and, you know, like Ford did to Nixon, because the divisions are just not in the country’s interest,” he added.
Pressed once more by reporters, DeSantis repeated his earlier line, saying, “Yeah, I said that months ago.”
NBC News later asked the governor’s spokesperson if his replies meant that he would indeed pardon Trump.
“Correct,” the spokesperson reportedly replied on Saturday.
It’s not clear why all this questioning was even necessary given the number of times that DeSantis has previously addressed this matter.
Ron DeSantis removes any doubt about his stance on pardoning Trump if elected POTUS https://t.co/dkY5yxwtvL via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) December 31, 2023
Dovetailing back to Burns, she later asked GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley some of the same questions she’d asked DeSantis.
In response to the Trump pardon question, Ramaswamy said, “I think it’s the right thing to do to unite this country and move our country forward.”
He likewise rejected the idea of asking Republicans to stop their investigation into the president and his son.
“With respect to specifically what’s going on in Ukraine, the very country that paid a $5 million alleged bribe to Hunter Biden, this is relevant to the actual policies of the country right now when that very president is sending $200 billion of our taxpayer money to that same country,” he said.
“If this is affecting our foreign policy and … and the lives of our sons and daughters, that absolutely is an important area for investigation,” he added.
Burns then asked him about pardoning Hunter.
“So the Ukraine charges, I think, we need to go all the way to the very bottom of it,” Ramaswamy replied. “I do think it’s impacting policy. …. I absolutely would not pardon because I think we need to get to the bottom of it.”
“If he is convicted, if that $5 million bribe was indeed paid to him for reasons to influence U.S. policy, if that’s proven in a court of law, I would not pardon the charges,” he added.
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Notice how both he and DeSantis immediately shut down the idea of pardoning Hunter. Haley for her part did not answer similarly.
“Haley, 51, argued that it wouldn’t be ‘responsible’ for her to make a determination just yet on whether she would grant President Biden’s 53-year-old son full legal forgiveness for his alleged crimes ‘when we don’t know all the details,'” according to the New York Post.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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