President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter was a direct contradiction to numerous public statements from his Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
On at least four occasions since Hunter Biden’s plea deal for gun charges collapsed in July 2023, Jean-Pierre assured reporters, in no uncertain terms, that President Biden would not be pardoning his son.
Shortly after the deal fell through, Jean-Pierre offered a simple one-word answer to the question of whether or not Biden would pardon his son: “No.”
Later she was asked again and repeated, more emphatically this time “It’s still a no. It’s still a no. It will be a no. It is a no. And I don’t have anything else to add. Will he pardon his son? No.”
Here’s Karine Jean-Pierre saying over an over again that Joe Biden will absolutely not pardon his son Hunter…
She claimed he wouldn’t on at least 4 separate occasions.
It’s the supercut you didn’t know you needed. pic.twitter.com/3lwBVrzzK3
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) December 2, 2024
Most recently, Jean-Pierre again repeated the now-false claim about the pardon Nov. 8, again telling reporters “Our answer stands, which is no.” (RELATED: KJP Takes Verbal Flogging From Reporters After Biden Bails Out His Son)
But President Biden did indeed end up pardoning Hunter, issuing a sweeping hall pass to his son for all alleged crimes between 2014 and December 2024.
After months of claiming he would not do so, President Biden pardons his son Hunter. @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/uZ1dBCmj3t
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) December 2, 2024
The pardon made Jean-Pierre’s past statements retroactively false, a trend that has repeated time and time again since she took over for departed former Press Secretary Jen Psaki in 2022.
Jean-Pierre notoriously peddled misinformation surrounding the subject of President Biden’s mental state.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 4: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calls on a reporter as U.S. President Joe Biden appears during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on October 04, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden made a surprise appearance, his first in the briefing room since becoming president, to tout a positive job report and take questions from reporters. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Following the President’s disastrous debate performance, KJP assured reporters and the American people that Biden would not be dropping out of the presidential race.
“The President is clear-eyed and he is staying in the race. I don’t have anything else beyond that,” she said in a July 3 press briefing.
But Biden would eventually drop out of the race, again directly contradicting Jean-Pierre’s definitive statements. KJP ardently defended the notion that Biden was mentally fit, even going so far as to describe videos of him looking visibly confused as “cheap fakes.”
Jean-Pierre’s lies about Biden’s apparent mental state became too much for even typically liberal-friendly reporters to ignore. (Reporter Repeatedly Presses KJP On Video Of Biden Wandering Around In Front Of World Leaders)
In July, KJP told reporters that a January meeting between Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, and neurological specialist Dr. Kevin Cannard was unrelated to the President’s care. That appeared to be a blatant falsehood, as the Associated Press’s Seung Min Kim, often the first reporter KJP chooses to ask a question during briefings, pointed out.
“On Tuesday, Press Sec [Jean-Pierre] said a WH meeting between Biden’s doctor and a neurologist was not related to Biden’s care. That was not true,” Seung tweeted July 10. (RELATED: ‘Cleaning Up Kamala’ | WATCH NOW)
Jean-Pierre would go on to admit that during the meeting, Biden received a neurological exam, a direct contradiction from her previous statements that Biden had only seen a neurologist during his annual checkup in February, Min Kim reported.
On Tuesday, @PressSec said a WH meeting between Biden’s doctor and a neurologist was not related to Biden’s care.
That was not true. Hours later, she said that meeting was actually when Biden got his neurological exam. https://t.co/obAgDOnXML
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) July 10, 2024
Reporters called into questions the veracity of her claims that Biden’s poor debate performance was not due to a declining mental state, but rather that he had a cold due to jetlag from a trip to Europe 12 days earlier.
“How is it that the President was still tired 12 days after returning from Europe, had a cold but then went to the Waffle House, and then the following day staged such a huge comeback that he gave those North Carolina remarks?” Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich asked.
“There’s a cold, there’s a jetlag, you combine that, he continues to work for the American people around the clock,” Jean-Pierre responded.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 07: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds the daily press briefing at the White House on October 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. Jean-Pierre spoke on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, Hurricane Helene recovery and Hurricane Milton’s path towards Florida. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Jean-Pierre also has a history of fibbing about abortion.
In 2022 she called Republican South Carolina Rep. Lindsey Graham’s 15-week abortion ban proposal a “national ban on abortion.”
However, the bill had clear exceptions for rape, incest and the life and health of the mother and allowed abortions up to 15 weeks.
KJP repeated the false claim on ABC’s “The View.”
“They want a national ban on abortion and it’s not gonna matter if you’re in a red state or a blue state, that means it will be completely banned. That is their message. That’s what they’re doing here and we have to remember that we can’t allow that to take us back. We cannot be moving backwards.”
Other instances of Jean-Pierre distorting reality include her insistence that there was “no evidence” of Hunter Biden’s alleged crimes that could lead to an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, and a December 2023 instance where she said a record number of migrant border crossings were “not unusual.”