By WILL WEISSERT, COLLEEN LONG and ZEKE MILLER, Associated Press
LUANDA, Angola (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday ducked questions on his decision to break his word and pardon his son Hunter, ignoring calls for him to explain his reversal as he was making his first presidential trip to Angola.
Dismissing shouted questions with a laugh during a meeting with Angolan President João Lourenço at the presidential palace, Biden said to the Angolan delegation “welcome to America.” Biden was not scheduled to take questions from the press during his trip to Africa, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday, and he has largely avoided any interaction with reporters since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory last month.
Biden’s decision to offer his son a blanket pardon for actions over the past 11 years has sparked a political uproar in Washington, after the president repeatedly told the public he would not use his extraordinary powers for the benefit of his family members. And Biden claimed that his own Justice Department had presided over a “miscarriage of justice” in prosecuting his son.
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The reversal drew criticism from many Democrats, who are working to calibrate their approach to Trump as he prepares to take over the Oval Office in seven weeks, as they fear the pardon — and Biden’s claims that his son was prosecuted for political reasons — will erode their ability to push back on the incoming president’s legal moves. And it threatened to cloud Biden’s legacy as he prepares to leave office on Jan. 20.
In June, Biden told reporters as his son faced trial in a Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
In July, Jean-Pierre told reporters: “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.”
In November, days after Trump’s victory, Jean-Pierre reiterated that message: “Our answer stands, which is no.”
Long and Miller reported from Washington.
