This is a topic that has kept surfacing repeatedly ever since First Son Hunter Biden's toxic sweetheart plea deal fell through thanks to the sharp eyes of Judge Maryellen Noreika. In the seemingly unlikely case that Hunter is found guilty of anything and faces a prison sentence, would the President issue him a pardon? Joe Biden's spokespeople - including KJP - have repeatedly said that he would not, but the President himself had yet to make that claim until this week. Biden was asked by David Muir or ABC News whether he would accept the verdict in Hunter's case no matter what it was and if he had "ruled out" issuing a pardon to his son. Biden answered in the affirmative to both questions. But should we really take those answers at face value? Recent history suggests otherwise. (NY Post)

President Biden said Thursday he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden if he’s convicted at a pair of federal criminal trials.

The 81-year-old president told ABC News anchor David Muir in an interview that he would accept the outcome of Hunter’s ongoing trial on gun charges in Delaware and that he would rule out using his unbridled clemency powers to set aside a conviction.

“Yes,” Biden responded to both prompts from Muir, according to excerpts published ahead of the full interview airing Thursday evening.

So why would Joe Biden say that he won't give his son a pardon? I suppose the first possibility is that he actually meant it, though I don't personally believe that for a moment. After all, he could always claim later that this was truly his intention, but he later "changed his mind" when the situation merited it. 

The second and more obvious possibility is that Joe Biden was simply lying. Let's face the facts here. The guy lies like the proverbial rug. He's spent the last couple of years assuring us that the border was closed and the economy was just fabulous. He tells tall tales about everything from having been a big rig driver to being a regular congregant at every church where he's ever lived. After all these years, he probably can't keep track of all of those stories himself. For all I know, he really believes that his uncle was eaten by cannibals. 

Yet those were all stories from the past. This was something different. This was a claim about something he plans (or doesn't plan) to do in the future, depending on how events play out. It was an interview, so that's not the same as taking an oath with his hand on a bible or testifying under oath before Congress. Still, it sounded an awful lot like a promise. If Hunter is convicted and Joe Biden pardons him anyway, will any of his transcriptionists in the legacy media call him out over that?

Yet another possibility comes to mind, at least for me. Perhaps Joe Biden felt comfortable saying he wouldn't pardon Hunter because he believed there would never be any need to pardon him. Legal analysts across the board have been describing the gun charges against Hunter as a "slam dunk" and the defense strategy as "dubious" at best. But most of those same people have expressed concerns that jury nullification could still be in play.

The jurors have certainly been given every opening to find Hunter not guilty no matter how airtight the evidence against him is. Most told the court that they had experience with friends or family members who suffered from addiction to drugs or alcohol. Some of them might readily consider writing off his trespasses as a side product of his addiction. (And after all... it's not as if he shot anyone, right?) If that angle doesn't work, how about the fact that Jill Biden has been in the courtroom almost every day staring the jurors down? Everyone on that jury is a local and they all know the Biden family name and brand. Life could become very uncomfortable for someone who has been identified as being one of the people who took Hunter down.

Once the jurors are sent to deliberate the verdict, all manner of situations might unfold. If a few of them insist that they won't vote to convict, the rest of them might start feeling very uncomfortable for the reasons I pointed out above. That's why I agree with some of the legal analysts who have recently suggested that not only is a hung jury a possibility but that Hunter could potentially be acquitted unanimously, meaning he could never be tried for these crimes again. Being high is never supposed to be a valid excuse for breaking the law, but I think we would be fooling ourselves if we ruled out the idea that it might happen here. And even if Hunter is convicted, I would bet you a large cup of coffee that Joe Biden would pardon him anyway, despite his claims earlier this week. His reputation precedes him and we simply can't take anything he says at face value.