Exclusive: Biden tells Muir he wouldn’t pardon son Hunter, says Trump got ‘fair trial’
Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on June 6, 2024
(NORMANDY) — President Joe Biden said he would not pardon his son Hunter amid an ongoing felony gun trial during a wide-ranging exclusive interview with ABC News anchor David Muir at the Normandy American Cemetery on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Muir asked Biden on Thursday if he would accept the outcome of his son’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, to which the president said, “Yes.” Biden also said “yes” when asked by Muir if he would rule out a pardon for Hunter.
Hunter Biden, the president’s only surviving son, is on trial in Delaware on three felony charges related to his efforts to obtain a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. It’s a historic trial, as no son of a sitting president has faced a criminal trial before. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty last October after being indicted by special counsel David Weiss.
For more from Muir’s interview with President Biden, watch ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” at 6:30 p.m. ET.
During the interview with Muir in Normandy, France, the president also touched on opponent Donald Trump’s own historic trial, after Trump became the first former president to be convicted on felony charges. Trump, convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, has baselessly called his guilty verdict a politically motivated witch hunt.
Biden accused Trump of seeking to undermine the result of his trial.
“He’s trying to undermine it,” Biden told Muir. “He got a fair trial. The jury spoke.”
Biden also addressed his new executive action to limit migrant encounters between official points of entry at the southern U.S. border that he announced Tuesday, after a bipartisan border bill was stalled in Congress for months before being effectively killed in the House at the behest of former President Trump.
“Do you wish you had done it sooner?” Muir asked Biden.
“No,” Biden said.
The president also talked with Muir about Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza, of which he has grown increasingly critical. Biden has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to credibly consider the safety of civilians in the southern Gazan town of Rafah.
“I think he’s listening to me,” Biden said of Netanyahu.
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