Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday issued a modest defense of President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter but suggested that Mr. Biden’s handling of the issue amounted to a self-inflicted wound.
His comments, at the DealBook Summit in Manhattan, came a few days after Mr. Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son despite having repeatedly said he would not do so.
“I wish he hadn’t said he wasn’t going to do it,” Mr. Clinton said. “It does weaken his case.”
But he argued that “the president did have reason to believe that the nature of the offenses involved were likely to produce far stronger adverse consequences for his son than they would for any normal person under the same circumstances.”
Mr. Biden moved to erase an array of Hunter Biden’s legal problems, including a federal conviction for illegally buying a gun and for tax evasion. The move drew criticism from both Republicans and several elected Democrats.
Mr. Clinton faced scrutiny for his own pardon decisions at the end of his time in office. He also pardoned a family member — his half-brother, Roger Clinton, for old cocaine charges — though Roger Clinton had already completed his prison term.
On Wednesday, Mr. Clinton said that he did not believe the two situations were analogous, even as he stressed that presidential pardons are often complicated and politically fraught.
In wide-ranging remarks, Mr. Clinton also grappled with his party’s losses in the elections last month after a summer of extraordinary tumult.
Affectionately describing Mr. Biden as a “stubborn old Irishman,” Mr. Clinton said that by the time the president decided to bow out of the presidential race, there was simply no time for a truly competitive primary election to replace him on the ticket.
“It was too late for a primary,” he said. “I thought the best we could do then was to try to unite and make the best campaign we could. Now, I’m not sure it was ever going to be winnable.”
He cited headwinds including inflation and Mr. Biden’s poor approval ratings, even as he suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris could have tried to keep the focus more squarely on cost-of-living issues.
Mr. Clinton was also asked about one of the men Ms. Harris had considered, but ultimately did not select, to be her running mate: Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish. Asked whether a Jewish person could become president, Mr. Clinton replied, “Absolutely.”
“Shapiro is a great talent, and he’s tough,” he said. “He’s a tough guy, and he knows what’s going on.”
Mr. Clinton also said that there was “something to” the idea that Democrats had been damaged by the perception that they were overly “woke” and obsessed with political correctness.
But in his down-home Arkansan way, he went on to defend the idea of programs aimed at advancing diversity, equity and inclusion: “Diverse groups make better decisions than homogenous ones do. And that’s what D.E.I. is to me.”
“If we want to keep it and we believe in diversity,” he continued, “we shouldn’t wuss out about it.”
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