Stephen A. Smith slams Biden for 'weak, pathetic explanation' of Hunter pardon

Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith criticized President Biden for the way he explained his decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden's gun and tax charges.

While Smith seemed to understand why President Biden would want to grant his son clemency, he questioned the president for claiming his son was targeted for political reasons.

"It could be argued that’s exactly what you were doing to Donald Trump, what you assisted in doing, seems beyond hypocritical, and that was what disgusted me," Smith told NewsNation's Chris Cuomo in an interview Monday.

"It wasn’t his decision It wasn’t him pardoning his son. It was the weak, pathetic explanation that he gave," he added.

The critique came a day after President Biden announced he signed a pardon for his son in both of his federal cases on Sunday, earning the ire of numerous political figures. The president previously said he would not pardon his son, vowing to stay out of the matter.

“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,” President Biden Biden said in a statement.

“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,” the president added. “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."

Smith suggested that reasoning should be applied to President-elect Trump, who has repeatedly argued that Democrats and the Justice Department have unfairly targeted him.

"Now, you can make an argument about the legitimacy of the cases against Donald Trump compared to what wasn’t illegitimate, etc. That’s not the point," Smith told Cuomo. "The point is it was clearly politicized."

"You had folks on the left who were hellbent on going after Donald Trump because they were determined to make sure that he couldn’t run for reelection, but these elements would get in the way of him possibly winning reelection," he added later.

Smith also joined others in calling for the president to offer a pardon to the former president for his legal battles following his election victory.

Trump, following news of Hunter Biden's clemency, slammed the move as a "miscarriage of justice."

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” the president-elect said in a post on Truth Social, referring to rioters who have been accused of storming the Capitol during the riots on Jan. 6, 2021.

The president-elect has signaled that pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters could come in the future.

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.

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