As President Joe Biden’s time in office winds down, the hosts of “The View” think he should definitely pardon his son Hunter before his term ends. Especially because, as Joy Behar joked on Wednesday, Donald Trump will be very liberally tossing out pardons to his own allies and supporters.
To kick off the ABC talk show’s Thanksgiving episode, the hosts first discussed Biden’s pardoning of two turkeys — Peach and Blossom — ahead of the holiday, a longstanding presidential tradition.
“But there’s a much more serious pardon that many people are wondering about, and that is people are wondering, should Biden pardon his son, Hunter?” Whoopi Goldberg segued. “Or does that make him an even bigger target for You-Know-Who coming in?”
For the most part, the hosts agreed that Hunter Biden should receive a pardon, but for various reasons. For Behar, it was simply a matter of taking advantage of an ability that Trump has already promised to exploit.
“We do know that Trump is going to be handing out pardons like cheeseburgers as soon as he gets into office,” she joked.
Host Ana Navarro then reminded viewers that he already issued pardons in his first term, namely for his son-in-law’s father, who pleaded guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion, one count of retaliating against a federal witness and one count of lying to the Federal Election Commission.
“So I would say if people didn’t have an issue with Trump pardoning his son-in-law’s father, I don’t think they should have an issue with Joe Biden pardoning his son,” Navarro said.
For Sunny Hostin, the fact that Hunter Biden has been open about his addiction problems, and was indicted on a charge that less than one percent of people in the country face, meant that a pardon would be a way to “correct course.”
“I actually think that the only reason he was indicted is because his last name is Biden,” she said. “So if you look at it like that, then it is the right thing to do to correct course and correct that wrong and pardon his son.”
Republican host Alyssa Farah Griffin was the outlier, noting that though she would “bury a body” for her future children, she remains torn on this situation.
“I get it as a personal decision. I worry a little bit about the implications for the country. And I mean this not because Hunter Biden affects the country, but because there’s such a distrust in the powerful, the politically connected,” she said. “There’s this idea that there’s a different system of justice. We just saw Donald Trump, his indictments go away because he’s in power. I feel like this would add to that.”
You can watch the full discussion from “The View” in the video above.
