Gavin New­som, Adam Schiff Crit­i­cize Biden over Hunter Par­don

Cal­i­for­nia Gov. Gavin New­som (D) and incom­ing Cal­i­for­nia Sen­a­tor Rep. Adam Schiff (D) have crit­i­cized Pres­i­dent Joe Biden for par­don­ing his son, Hunter, on Sun­day, becom­ing the most promi­nent Democ­rats to voice con­cerns.

New­som, thought to be posi­tion­ing him­self for a 2028 pres­i­den­tial run after he is termed out of office in 2026, told Politi­co that he was “dis­ap­point­ed” in the deci­sion because he took Biden at his word that he would not do it.

“With every­thing the pres­i­dent and his fam­i­ly have been through, I com­plete­ly under­stand the instinct to pro­tect Hunter,” he told Politi­co. “But I took the pres­i­dent at his word. So by def­i­n­i­tion, I’m dis­ap­point­ed and can’t sup­port the deci­sion.”

Schiff respond­ed more slow­ly. He had sup­port­ed leg­is­la­tion in 2018 to force the pres­i­dent to turn over doc­u­ments to Con­gress in the event he par­doned a mem­ber of his fam­i­ly, say­ing such par­dons could be an effort to obstruct jus­tice.

“The Con­gress ought to know whether the Pres­i­dent is using the par­don pow­er to obstruct jus­tice,” Schiff told CNN at the time.

Schiff told San Fran­cis­co Bay Area pub­lic radio sta­tion KQED that he, too, was “dis­ap­point­ed” by the par­don, say­ing that it set a prece­dent “that will undoubt­ed­ly be abused and prob­a­bly will be abused in the very near future by the incom­ing pres­i­dent.”

Schiff cit­ed Trump’s desire to par­don Jan­u­ary 6 pro­test­ers. He did not men­tion Pres­i­dent Biden’s pos­si­ble effort to obstruct jus­tice by excus­ing his son for his con­duct in Ukraine — the very con­duct Trump was prob­ing when Schiff impeached Trump for ask­ing the Ukrain­ian gov­ern­ment to inves­ti­gate the Bidens.

Joel B. Pol­lak is Senior Edi­tor-at-Large at Bre­it­bart News and the host of Bre­it­bart News Sun­day on Sir­ius XM Patri­ot on Sun­day evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agen­da: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, avail­able for pre-order on Ama­zon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Lega­cy of Don­ald Trump’s Pres­i­den­cy, now avail­able on Audi­ble. He is a win­ner of the 2018 Robert Novak Jour­nal­ism Alum­ni Fel­low­ship. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @joelpollak.