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Former Biden-era White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said Tuesday that former President Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons were a “disappointing move.”

Biden pardoned five members of his family, including his two brothers, moments before President Donald Trump took the oath of office on Monday. In the hours prior to leaving office, he further issued pardons for former senior White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley and members of the January 6 Select Committee.

Bedingfield told CNN host Kasie Hunt that Biden had sent a “bad message” to the American people with the last-minute pardon for his family and pointed to his previous concerns in 2020 that then-former President Trump would pardon members of his own family.

“It was a disappointing move. I was disappointed in it,” Bedingfield said. “I think he has spoken so eloquently about the need to preserve the rule of law. As he was coming into office in 2020, he talked about the idea of Trump pardoning his family and said that it would send a bad message. And I think it’s hard to argue that it didn’t yesterday. I will be totally candid. I think it was disappointing.”

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Bedingfield then argued that Biden likely feared for his family over Trump’s alleged intention to “go after his political enemies,” prompting him to issue the preemptive pardons. The now-former president pardoned his son, Hunter, in December from any crime committed between Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024, after himself and former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre promised that his son would not be granted a pardon by his father.

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A Delaware jury convicted the president’s son of unlawfully purchasing a firearm in 2018 while knowingly being addicted to drugs and for lying on the purchase form. He also faced nine charges in California for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes.

Biden further commuted the sentences of 2,500 individuals convicted of violent crimes, including two men whose actions led to the death of a police officer, on Friday.

During the signing of executive orders Monday night, Trump told reporters that Biden’s sudden pardoning of his family members makes them appear guilty of a crime and argued he would likely not have been reelected if he had issued a similar action for his own family during his first term. The president signed an executive order Monday night to issue “full, complete and unconditional pardons” for an estimated 1,500 individuals charged in connection to their alleged actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

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