- Joe Biden announced Sunday evening the pardon for his son Hunter
- Came after he said at least twice over the summer he would not issue a pardon
Joe Biden was determined to give a truthful answer when he repeatedly said, before the election, that he would not pardon his son.
A body language expert provided an analysis to DailyMail.com of Biden’s comments on the subject in June.
‘Biden looks like a man who has already made this decision and that the decision itself is non-negotiable,’ Judi James said of the two instances where Biden told reporters he was not weighing a pardon for his 54-year-old son.
‘There’s not even any discussion from the interviewer, who moves onto the next subject, clearly satisfied the questions have been dealt with in the most comprehensive way,’ she added.
In a stark U-turn Biden announced on Sunday his decision to pardon his son.
While it’s not immediately clear whether Biden was being truthful in June based on an analysis of his body language, James speculates that he did believe his answers at the time.
‘He was very determined to define himself as being totally honest which in political terms is the same as being honest because he would know how impossibly bad these unequivocal answers would look if he did the opposite in the future,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘It’s implying he is staking his reputation on this here.’
A body language expert told DailyMail.com that President Joe Biden didn’t show any explicit signs of dishonestly when he said that he did not intend to pardon his son Hunter
President Biden announced on Sunday evening he came to the decision to pardon his son Hunter, 54, for three felony charges for lying on a form to purchase a firearm
However, several reports now claim Biden was considering the action for at least six months.
Republicans claim the American people can no longer trust the word of the U.S. Commander-in-Chief, who will remain in the role for another nearly two months.
Hunter was convicted on June 11, 2024 of three felony charges for lying on a federal form to purchase a firearm in 2018.
Before the conviction, and after, Biden and his spokespeople and surrogates repeatedly said that he would not pardon his son.
In an interview with ABC News host David Muir in June, Biden was asked: ‘Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?’
‘Yes,’ Biden replied.
‘It is rare for any politician to offer a one-word answer to a ‘Yes or no’ question, but Biden does that here, twice,’ James notes.
A reporter also asked Biden during a press conference over the summer: ‘Was your son able to get a fair trial, do you believe the Justice Department operated independently of politics?’
‘I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything,’ Biden said from the podium. ‘I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.’
At the time, Biden was still leading the 2024 presidential ticket, but later in the summer he stepped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who went on to lose to Donald Trump.
Biden said at least twice after the conviction over the summer that he would not pardon his son. Pictured: At a press conference, Biden said, ‘I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him’
Of Biden’s two denials over the summer regarding his son, James said: ‘There is absolutely no wriggle room in terms of offering himself any get-out clause if he should decide to change his mind.
‘The impact of the first ‘Yes’ to accepting the jury’s verdict no matter what is then huge and to make it even more powerful he retains an almost frozen facial expression,’ she noted.
Additionally, James observes that there are no indications that Biden was being untruthful when he said he didn’t intend to pardon Hunter.
‘His commitment looks as firm here,’ she notes, ‘with a similar holding of the eye gaze which looks like a gesture of honesty or like a gesture he uses to emphasize the sense of honesty in his answer.’