Jill Biden offered a striking defense of her husband’s controversial decision to pardon their son Hunter Biden, telling CBS in a wide-ranging interview that the family feared President Trump would “target” Hunter once he returned to the White House. The conversation, which aired on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” marked one of the most candid public discussions yet of the 11th-hour pardon that stunned even some Democratic allies.
Sitting down with correspondent Rita Braver, Jill Biden was pressed on the apparent reversal by Joe Biden, who had repeatedly insisted throughout his presidency that he would not use his clemency power to shield his son from federal prosecution. The interview aired on May 31, 2026, after being recorded earlier that week on May 29, 2026.
A Pardon That Broke a Promise
Braver did not let the former first lady off the hook, reminding her that Joe Biden had publicly vowed, “I won’t pardon Hunter,” before reversing course in the final weeks of his presidency. Asked whether she had urged the president to reconsider his position, Jill Biden acknowledged the about-face but argued circumstances had shifted dramatically after the November 2024 election.
“When Trump was elected, things changed, and we knew that he would target Hunter. And we just could not let our son go to jail on a charge that no one would go — I mean, no one has ever gone to jail for,” she told Braver, according to the CBS broadcast.
Jill Biden stopped short of directly answering whether she personally pressured her husband to grant the pardon. When Braver asked the question a second time, she pivoted. “Oh gosh, I truly supported it. I wanted him to pardon Hunter at that point, and I agreed with Joe,” she replied, sidestepping the issue of whether she had been the driving force behind the decision.
Hunter’s Legal Troubles and the Sweeping Clemency
The pardon, announced in December 2024 during the final month of Joe Biden’s term, wiped clean two separate federal cases against the younger Biden. In June 2024, Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony gun charges tied to his purchase and possession of a firearm in 2018, including possession of a firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance. A few months later, he pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges.
The clemency Joe Biden ultimately granted was extraordinarily broad. It was a full and unconditional pardon covering any offenses Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed” between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024 — a roughly 11-year window that encompassed both convictions as well as virtually any other potential federal exposure stemming from his business dealings or personal conduct.
When he announced the pardon, Joe Biden insisted his son had been the victim of selective prosecution driven by political considerations. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” the former president said at the time. He emphasized that Hunter had been five and a half years sober and described the prosecutions as part of an “unrelenting” campaign of attacks.
Preemptive Pardons for the Whole Family
Braver also pressed Jill Biden on why her husband had moved to issue preemptive pardons to other members of the Biden family on his way out of office — a highly unusual step that drew criticism from legal scholars and political opponents alike. She offered the same rationale, saying Joe Biden was worried Trump would target his relatives once back in power.
Jill Biden suggested that her husband’s argument about the justice system had hardened in the months following the election. She told Braver that “the justice department changed, and the process was not fair to Hunter,” reflecting a belief inside the Biden family that prosecutors under a second Trump administration would not have shown restraint.
‘Frightened’ by the Debate Stage
The interview produced other revealing moments. Jill Biden told CBS that she had been “frightened” while watching her husband’s disastrous June 2024 debate against Trump — the performance that ultimately set in motion the chain of events leading to Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. In a striking admission, she said she believed her husband had suffered a stroke on stage that night, an explanation that would, if accurate, recast one of the most consequential moments of the 2024 campaign.
Jill Biden’s remarks to Braver represent one of her most extensive public commentaries since leaving the White House. Throughout the conversation, she returned repeatedly to the theme of family protection, framing the pardons not as a violation of norms but as a necessary safeguard against what she portrayed as a vindictive incoming administration.
Critics of the pardon have argued the move undermined Joe Biden’s longstanding rhetoric about the rule of law and equal justice. Supporters, including Jill Biden, insist the family had no other choice. Either way, the CBS sit-down made clear the Bidens have no intention of backing down from the decision — and that Jill Biden, at least, has fully embraced the rationale her husband offered when he signed his son’s clemency papers.
