Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) repeatedly refused to answer questions on Tuesday about President Joe Biden’s controversial pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.
Schumer, pressed four times by separate reporters on the issue that has roiled Democrats on Capitol Hill, continued to offer the same blunt response: “I’ve got nothing for you on that.”
Schumer indicated he would conclude the press conference early if reporters did not change the subject.
The episode on such a contentious issue marked a rare moment of silence from Schumer, who will be one of the highest-ranking Democrats in Washington next year under a Republican Congress and White House.
Biden’s blanket pardon of his son extended well beyond the felony tax and gun charges he was convicted of and had yet to be sentenced for. The decision to put personal interests above the party drew a rebuke from Democrats at levels not seen since the summer, when party leaders refused to back the president’s reelection bid, leading to his eventual withdrawal.
An array of Democratic lawmakers and governors accused Biden of putting “personal interest ahead of duty” and “eroding” faith in the justice system, and they warned he may forever “tarnish his reputation.” They expressed empathy for Biden’s action as a father but not as the president.
Biden said he reached the decision over beliefs that the prosecution against his son had been tainted with unfair political persecution.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden said in his pardon letter. “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 selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
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An outlier among the criticism from Democrats was Schumer’s deputy and longtime Biden ally, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), who defended the pardon to the Washington Examiner.
“It is a right given to the president, a power given to him under the Constitution, and Joe Biden is using it in a very humane way,” Durbin said. “I think Hunter Biden has been exploited for political purposes. It’s not the first time. Won’t be the last time in American history, but I can certainly understand Joe Biden standing up and saying that he wants to protect his son.”
David Sivak contributed to this report.
