Sunny Hostin And Joy Behar Do Rhetorical Gymnastics To Excuse Biden Family Pardons

Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar, cohosts of ABC News’ “The View,” opened Wednesday’s broadcast of the midday talk show by defending former President Joe Biden’s 11th-hour pardons for several of his family members.

Hostin and Behar, both of whom have repeatedly accused President Donald Trump of weaponizing the Justice Department, made excuse after excuse for the blanket pardons Biden issued just moments prior to leaving the White House for the final time.

Hostin began the conversation by complaining about Trump’s decision to pardon nearly all of those who’d been charged in relation to January 6, claiming that it was out of bounds for him to pardon people who were guilty of “violence toward law enforcement.”

As Newsbusters’ Nick Fondacaro noted, Hostin defended Black Lives Matter protesters despite the damage they did and lobbied hard for Vice President Kamala Harris even though she’d supported a progressive non-profit that bailed out violent rioters in 2020.

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When cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin raised the specter of Biden’s pardons, saying that the former president had damaged his own legacy when he chose to issue them, Behar jumped in to do damage control.

“Joe Biden lost two other children. He lost two children. So to be in the position and not protect the one child that he has …” Behar said, clearly referencing the pardon Biden issued to his embattled son Hunter.

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Griffin pushed back, noting that she was referring to the pardons issued on Monday to his siblings and in-laws.

Hostin interrupted, saying that Biden was only responding to extreme circumstances and trying to protect his family from a president “on a revenge tour.”

Cohost Sara Haines argued that she could understand where Biden was coming from, even if pardoning his family members might send a message that was not optimal.

“Whenever I see something like this I try to parse out how would I feel in their shoes … knowing what Donald Trump is capable of and what he said he would do … even at the expense of weakening [American institutions] I would say at least protect my family,” Haines explained.

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Griffin tried once more, arguing that even Trump had backed away from issuing blanket pardons to family members and key allies — despite Democrats and media insisting he was likely to do so — in the final hours of his first term in the White House.

Cohost Ana Navarro complained that the two presidents’ actions were not in any way comparable, saying that Biden was less of a problem because he had waited until the very last day to issue the pardons he’d repeatedly promised not to issue, while Trump had made good on day one on his campaign promise to issue pardons for most of those charged over the January 6 riot.

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