In a podcast interview, Hunter Biden said his father’s December 2024 pardon harmed Joe Biden’s standing as commander in chief and showed he “chose” his son over legacy—connecting the decision to the election of Donald Trump and the fear of federal supervision
Hunter Biden didn’t soften the message when he spoke about the pardon that ended his federal cases.
In an interview that aired Friday on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, the younger Biden said his father’s presidential decision “tarnished” his reputation as commander in chief. He pointed to the moment as proof that, in his father’s mind, family came before legacy.
“That’s how much you know my dad loves me,” Hunter Biden told Newsom. He later added, “He chose me over his political legacy.”
Joe Biden had repeatedly vowed not to interfere in the federal tax and gun cases against his son. but he granted Hunter Biden a “full and unconditional” pardon in December 2024. The timing mattered: the pardon came shortly before the scheduled sentencing in the two criminal cases and not long before the president left office.
Hunter Biden said his father initially insisted he would not issue a pardon. “My dad said that he wouldn’t give me a pardon and he was absolutely 100% genuine about it,” he told the podcast.
In Hunter Biden’s telling, his father believed that if he remained the president, the Justice Department would treat him fairly. But Hunter Biden said that view changed after Donald Trump was elected to a second term.
He described what he expected under a Trump administration. saying he would have been under the supervision of the Bureau of Federal Prisons and become a target. “It would have been like having a gun to my family’s head for the next four years at least. so that’s why he pardoned me. ” Hunter Biden said. “It’s a really incredibly rational decision and a really difficult decision.”.
Hunter Biden also said the pardon would not have happened if Trump had not won in 2024. “If it was in a Mitt Romney administration. if it was in a John McCain administration. if it was in anybody that was an actual Republican and not a tyrant or a fascist. my dad would not have pardoned me. ” he said.
Those comments land amid another layer of contradiction: the prosecutions Hunter Biden faced were carried out during Joe Biden’s own administration. When Joe Biden signed the pardon. he said in the moment that “raw politics” had already “infected” Hunter Biden’s criminal cases and “led to a miscarriage of justice.”.
Support for the pardon’s rationale has not been unanimous, but Jill Biden recently defended her husband’s choice. She told NBC’s “TODAY” that she “of course” supported Joe Biden’s decision. “Joe wasn’t thinking about himself. He said all along that he was not going to pardon Hunter, but then the administration changed,” Jill Biden said. “The process was not fair to Hunter. The current president won, and the Justice Department changed. It became political.”.
Hunter Biden said he and his father understood the pardon would shape how the former president is remembered.
“It’s going to be one of the first things that is written about him,” Hunter Biden said. “That’s how much you know my dad loves me. He chose me over his political legacy.”
The legal timeline also runs deeper than a single decision. The investigation into Hunter Biden began during the first Trump administration. When Merrick Garland became attorney general during the Biden administration, he kept in place the U.S. attorney who’d been investigating the case.
After an earlier plea deal that would have settled both cases fell apart, Hunter Biden was convicted by a federal jury on the gun charges in Delaware in 2024, and later pleaded guilty to three felony and six misdemeanor tax charges.
In the California case, the judge who presided over the matter criticized the elder Biden’s public comments about his son being “unfairly” prosecuted, saying the president was trying to “rewrite history.”
The interview also shifted to politics beyond Hunter Biden’s own cases. including his comments about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Platner has been the subject of several controversies. including a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol on his chest and sexting relationships with multiple women during his marriage.
Hunter Biden defended Platner, saying Platner acknowledged he “had some real issues” but had worked to improve and “lead a better life.”
“I’m 99.9% certain Graham Platner is no Nazi,” Hunter Biden said.
Hunter Biden also said he has not heard evidence that Platner is abusive or driven by hateful beliefs. “I have not heard anything in any way that would say to me that he’s an abusive. misogynistic. antisemitic or racist person. ” Hunter Biden said. He added. “I have heard this from Graham Platner: he thinks we should have free health care” and that “we have to radically change our politics.”.
He concluded, “That’s what I’ve heard from Graham Platner.”
For Hunter Biden, the pardon remains more than a legal ending—it’s a family story tied tightly to timing, fear, and political power. And in his telling, the choice his father made wasn’t just about him. It was about what history would say.
Hunter Biden Joe Biden presidential pardon December 2024 commander in chief Donald Trump Matt Gaetz Bureau of Federal Prisons Merrick Garland gun charges tax charges Graham Platner Gavin Newsom podcast