Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggested Wednesday that, unlike President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump would have fired and personally attacked the federal prosecutor if one of his sons was under investigation.
The comparison came as the MSNBC host subbed for Chris Hayes on “All In” amid the ongoing legal troubles and plea deal for Biden’s son, Hunter. She applauded the sitting president for approaching the proceedings “exactly by the book,” saying that “it was important to let them finish their work.”
“Imagine just for a second a child of the former president, a child of Trump, was under investigation by a prosecutor appointed by a Democratic president, do you think there is any world in which he would have let that person keep their job?” Psaki said. “Or, frankly, even refrain from personally attacking them? If you have any doubt, remember, Donald Trump attempted to co-opt the DOJ to help him steal the election. And he has repeatedly targeted prosecutors for simply doing their jobs.”
Hunter Biden was due to enter a plea deal for two tax misdemeanor charges and a firearm felony brought against him by U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss, a prosecutor appointed by Trump during his past term as president, Wednesday.
“That’s what everyone thought was going to happen, but in what felt like a twist, the judge did not approve the deal,” Psaki explained, “instead giving the prosecutors and defense teams 30 days to hash out the agreement. Hunter Biden then pleaded not guilty.”
The MSNBC host then gave context to how President Biden has reacted to the ongoing investigation against his son, first initiated under former President Trump and an appointee.
“When Joe Biden took office more than two years ago now, he asked nearly all of the United States attorneys from the Trump era to resign,” Psaki said. “This is a typical process for a new president. But Joe Biden went out of his way to leave two of those federal prosecutors in place.”
One of those prosecutors was David Weiss. Psaki said they kept him because he was mid-investigation on Hunter.
“I remember this well, I was working on the Biden transition team when these decisions were made, and it was not exactly the easier option,” she said.
“No one in the Biden orbit knew what either prosecutor would decide to do. But the point was that the investigative work of the Department of Justice and these attorneys must be independent,” she added. “And it was important to let them finish their work, that is how the system is supposed to work.”
Psaki continued: “While all of this was going on today, Biden remained pretty out of the public eye. He has maintained a strict distance from any appearance of involvement in his son’s case, any appearance at all, or the processes of the DOJ. Whatever you think of these relatively minor offenses by Hunter Biden, he is not someone who does not hold public office, simply happens to be the son of the president, and the Biden administration has played this exactly by the book.”
Watch the full “All In” segment from MSNBC in the video above.
