Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was perplexed in an interview with NBC News on Thursday when asked whether he would pardon Hunter Biden as president.
DeSantis told NBC's Dasha Burns he could pardon former President Trump, who faces trial later this year on two federal charges related to his handling of classified documents and involvement in the events leading up to the Jan. 6 incident. He was questioned about his past comments in which he said he had sex. , in addition to two other state-level charges.
The Republican candidate explained that Trump's pardon could help “move the country forward,” as former President Ford pardoned his ousted predecessor Richard Nixon as a way to “heal the country.” I mentioned what I did.
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Republican candidate Ron DeSantis was confused when asked in an interview on NBC if he would pardon Hunter Biden. (Screenshot/NBC News)
Burns then asked if he would urge Republican lawmakers not to continue investigations into President Biden in the “spirit” of preventing further division, but Biden replied that DeSantis has not been held accountable for anything. He refused.
“Different standards of justice have been applied to these investigations, because the amount of money coming into their families, how can they do that when millions of dollars are coming into their families? Things are going to happen…we didn't even scratch the surface.'That's going to come to the surface,'' DeSantis said.
“So when it comes to Trump, it heals the country, but when it comes to Biden, it doesn't,” Burns responded. “What about Hunter Biden, will you forgive me?”
“Why?” a confused DeSantis responded before shouting “No!”
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NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns pressed DeSantis on why he would consider pardoning former President Trump rather than Hunter Biden if elected president to heal the country. (Screenshot/NBC News)
“It's the same question: in the spirit of healing the country and moving forward,” Burns said.
“They are not the same thing,” DeSantis said. “The current administration is prosecuting a former president. That's different from prosecuting Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was not one of the opposition leaders. So it's not healthy for the country to do something like that.” No way! I can't believe this country would do something like that. ”
He later continued, “If… [Hunter Biden] If he didn't have ties to the DC establishment, he would have been indicted long ago. But they are not equivalent in some ways to what we see with Ford and Nixon and later Donald Trump. ”
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President Biden's son Hunter Biden is facing criminal charges for tax and gun crimes. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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Burns asked fellow Republican rivals Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy the same question in separate interviews. Both said they would pardon Trump.
When Burns questioned Haley about Hunter Biden's pardon, he called her “the president's kid.” “Let's see what the charges are,” the former UN ambassador responded, alluding to the courtroom chaos that unfolded earlier.
Ramaswamy took a firm “no” stance against any convictions related to foreign currency received by the president's son or bribery schemes in which his father may have been involved.
