Former first lady Jill Biden defended her husband’s sweeping pardon of their son Hunter Biden in an interview, arguing that the family believed President Donald Trump would “target” Hunter after returning to office following the November 2024 election.
Speaking with correspondent Rita Braver on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” Jill Biden delivered one of her most extensive public explanations of the December 2024 clemency decision, which shocked even some Democratic supporters of former President Joe Biden. The interview aired just days before the publication of her memoir, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir,” released by Gallery Books.
Hunter’s Legal Troubles and the Sweeping Clemency
Hunter Biden faced two separate federal prosecutions that concluded in 2024. In June 2024, he was convicted of three felony gun charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase and possession, including possession of a firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance. Months later, he entered a guilty plea to nine federal tax charges.
The pardon Joe Biden issued was remarkably expansive. It provided full and unconditional forgiveness for any offenses Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed” between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024 — an approximately 11-year period covering both convictions and virtually any other potential federal liability related to his business activities or personal behavior.
When the pardon was announced, Joe Biden maintained his son had been subjected to selective prosecution motivated by politics. “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,” the former president said at the time. He noted that Hunter had been five and a half years sober and characterized the prosecutions as part of an “unrelenting” campaign of attacks.
A Pardon That Broke a Promise
Braver challenged Jill Biden on Joe Biden’s reversal, noting the former president had publicly promised not to pardon Hunter throughout his time in office before changing his mind in his final weeks as president. When asked if she had encouraged her husband to reconsider, Jill Biden acknowledged the shift but insisted the situation had changed after Trump won the November 2024 election.
“When Trump was elected, things changed, and we knew that he would target Hunter. And we just could not let our son go to jail on a charge that no one would go — I mean, no one has ever gone to jail for,” she told Braver, according to the CBS broadcast.
The former first lady avoided directly stating whether she personally pushed her husband to issue the pardon. After Braver posed the question twice, she responded, “Oh gosh, I truly supported it. I wanted him to pardon Hunter at that point, and I agreed with Joe,” evading the question of whether she had initiated the decision.
Jill Biden told Braver that the justice department changed and the process was not fair to Hunter, suggesting the Biden family believed prosecutors in a second Trump administration would pursue their son aggressively.
Preemptive Pardons for the Whole Family
Braver also questioned Jill Biden about Joe Biden’s decision to grant preemptive pardons to other Biden family members as he left office — an uncommon action that sparked backlash from legal experts and political critics. She provided the same justification, saying Joe Biden feared Trump would go after his relatives once he regained power.
‘Frightened’ by the Debate Stage
The interview included other notable disclosures. Jill Biden revealed she felt “frightened” watching her husband’s poor June 2024 debate performance against Trump — the event that triggered the sequence of events leading to Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race. In her memoir, she describes her thoughts during the debate: “Is he short-circuiting? … Is this a stroke? … Was he having a medical emergency?” She writes that she still does not know what happened and says she regrets not requesting bloodwork. She also recounts Joe Biden whispering to her as he left the stage: “I really *** up, didn’t I?” — an admission that, if accurate, would recast one of the most consequential moments of the 2024 campaign.
Jill Biden’s remarks to Braver represent one of her most extensive public commentaries since leaving the White House. Critics of the pardon have argued the move undermined Joe Biden’s longstanding rhetoric about the rule of law and equal justice — a charge the former first lady showed no sign of conceding.