Gavin Newsom 'disappointed' that Biden used pardon power to favor his son

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) revealed Tuesday that he’s “disappointed” in President Joe Biden for granting a presidential pardon to his son Hunter Biden. Newsom, though offering some degree of understanding, said he ultimately could not accept the president’s justification for making his decision.

“With everything the president and his family have been through, I completely understand the instinct to protect Hunter,” Newsom told Politico. “But I took the president at his word. So by definition, I'm disappointed and can't support the decision.”

Newsom publicly speaking against the president is a turn from his staunch defense of Biden in recent years. He was one of Biden’s most ardent defenders throughout the summer firestorm that was ignited by the president’s pitiful performance in the one and last debate with former President Donald Trump, which was only extinguished when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party bosses ousted Biden from the Democratic presidential nomination he had won in the primaries. But Newsom stood by Biden.

Biden’s pardon has not sat well with many of his usual supporters and even his own Department of Justice special counsel offered withering criticism of the president’s decision. Special counsel David Weiss on Monday vigorously denied President Joe Biden’s contention that Hunter Biden was “selectively and unfairly prosecuted” for tax evasion and gun crimes and that it was “nonsensical” to say otherwise.

“The Government does not challenge that the defendant has been the recipient of an act of mercy. But that does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away as if it never occurred,” Weiss wrote in a filing with the US District Court for the Central District of California.

Hunter Biden reportedly got his father to agree to the pardon during a Thanksgiving weekend trip and First Lady Jill Biden also applied the pressure to her husband to grant the pardon, according to CNN, even after the president had repeatedly indicated that he had no intention of ever pardoning Hunter.

Newsom, who has been hailed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate despite the economic malaise of his state, seems determined to oppose the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. The governor is seeking a $25 million legal fund to battle the Trump administration in court over policy decisions that don’t blend well with his state’s progressive values.