The “hot topic” of President Joe Biden pardoning his son resulted in two co-hosts of “The View” going head-to-head in Monday’s show.
Host Whoopi Goldberg took exception to co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin’s assessment that Biden lied when he previously said he would not pardon his son, Hunter — something he eventually did Sunday night, per Mediaite.
Most of Monday’s panel understood Biden’s decision.
Co-host Sunny Hostin pointed out President-elect Donald Trump “escaped responsibility for his crimes” even though he was convicted earlier this year in the hush money trial.
Hostin also said Trump pardoned Charles Kushner during his first term as president and recently nominated him to be ambassador to France.
Griffin, the sole Republican on the panel, viewed things differently, saying most Americans “face consequences for actions that they took” knowing “nobody powerfully and connected is going to come sweep in.”
“This feeds the notion to a lot of this country that there’s a different set of rules for folks in power, and when we sit here and say, like: ‘Well, Donald Trump did X, Y, and Z, and how did he get elected?’” Griffin said. “To a lot of this country, it just becomes noise. If you commit crimes and somebody powerful and connected in D.C., right, left, center, Biden, Trump, you’re going to be able to get away with it.”
Griffin said she didn’t like that Biden had lied.
“I take issue with lying about it. I wanted to ask [Biden] here when he came on “The View,” but the thought was he said so many times he wasn’t going to pardon him. That, to me, is lying to the public,” the conservative host said. “I felt bad for Karine Jean-Pierre; she had to say he wasn’t going to pardon him. That’s why they don’t trust Washington or politicians and I know a lot of us like Joe Biden, but I find it disappointing and bad for our institutions.”
Co-host Ana Navarro chimed in, saying said that she wanted Hunter Biden to make the most of this “great gift of freedom.”
Griffin reiterated her stance.
“I respect it as a parent. I understand why he would do it, but I wanted to understand why lie about it for so long?” she asked.
That’s when Goldberg stepped in.
“I would stop… I would stop calling it a lie,” Goldberg said.
“OK. Why repeatedly saying you’re not not going to, and you do?” Griffin responded. “The half of the country that doesn’t support Biden and doesn’t get to have phone calls and they’re looking at a system that only benefits the people who are in power. What precedent does that set?”
Goldberg responded by bringing up Trump.
“It’s a precedent for all of us to open our eyes because we’ve elected somebody who was in a similar situation who didn’t have a drug problem, who knew what he was doing,” Goldberg said. “Who clearly stood and said, ‘I can do this’ and he did it.”
“I think Biden had no intentions of pardoning Hunter, and I think the more stuff that went down… I think he said, ‘well, why am I busting my behind to stay straight and do this when nobody is? When no one else is?’” she added.
“I think he thought he was going to win [the election],” Griffin replied. “And I wish he would have been honest with the public.”
