Blaze News original: Biden praised on CNN, MSNBC months ago for promise not to pardon Hunter. Now there’s egg on a few faces.

‘One side: Democrats and Joe Biden protecting the justice system, and on the other, Republicans and Trump protecting Trump.’

CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp spoke during a segment titled “Biden says he won’t pardon son Hunter if he’s convicted” and attempted to draw a distinction between Biden and Trump: “The contrast is profound. To sit there and say, ‘I’m not going to intervene in the legal process, and I wouldn’t pardon my son.’ … One side: Democrats and Joe Biden protecting the justice system, and on the other, Republicans and Trump protecting Trump.” You can view the clip here at the 40-second mark.

Cupp on Monday morning posted the following on X: “It doesn’t get said enough, but Trump’s enduring legacy will be convincing BOTH parties to lower the bar, and that possessing moral authority on anything is no longer a currency that matters.”

Her statement was in response to the following post by never-Trump author Charlie Sykes: “Smart person texts me: ‘Joe Biden has just removed the issue of pardons from the political arena for the next four years, and Trump probably once again can’t believe his own dumb f***ing luck at this point.’ Sadly, I think he’s right.”

‘A current president of the United States has so much respect for the law that he has said he would not pardon his son … again, it’s all about the contrast.’

In another clip (1:06 mark), Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” stated that “a current president of the United States has so much respect for the law that he has said he would not pardon his son … again, it’s all about the contrast.”

The clip cuts to Willie Geist of “Morning Joe” with this take: “President Biden saying, ‘I will respect whatever this jury decides’ versus Donald Trump after he was convicted on 34 counts saying the entire system is rigged against him.”

Brzezinski pushed out an audible snicker after Geist’s pronouncement.

‘How can the Justice Department be weaponized against Trump when all of that is happening?’

Over a screen title that reads, “The right accuses the DOJ of weaponizing the justice system despite Hunter Biden’s prosecution & guilty verdict,” MSNBC’s Joy Reid states that “the president said he won’t touch it; he said he’s not going to pardon his son, and it seems that [U.S. Attorney General] Merrick Garland let it go through. How can the Justice Department be weaponized against Trump when all of that is happening?”

Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida replied, “The Democrats stand for the rule of law. Remember law and order. … It is amazing to see the stark contrast between how Democrats handled today and how Republicans handled this whole thing over the last couple of weeks.”

You can view the clip here at the 3:47 mark. You can view the full June 11 segment here.

‘Those words so completely contrast with his opponent.’

Katy Tur said in another MSNBC clip (7:36 mark) — with a screen title that reads, “Hunter Biden found guilty of 3 felony gun charges” — that the president insisted he would respect the outcome of his son’s case and that “those words so completely contrast with what his opponent, now a convicted felon himself, continues to say about the U.S courts.”

‘The contrast to how Trump has behaved, how Trump has treated the rule of law … this was a good day for the system.’

Chuck Todd — over an MSNBC screen title that reads, “Hunter Biden found guilty of 3 felony gun charges” — had the following to say: “The contrast to how Trump has behaved, how Trump has treated the rule of law … this was a good day for the system, a good day for sort of America as an example of how the rule of law should work.” You can view the clip here at the 7:58 mark.

‘Joe Biden has very clearly said he would not pardon his son, he would not commute his sentence. How stark is this difference?’

Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC’s “The Nightcap” — over a screen title that reads, “Hunter Biden convicted on gun charges” — said the following to her panel: “The latest attack is that Joe Biden has politicized and weaponized the DOJ, right? That was the whole argument around Donald Trump’s conviction, and this week, of course, Hunter Biden was found guilty, and Joe Biden has very clearly said he would not pardon his son, he would not commute his sentence. How stark is this difference? I mean, how can Republicans keep making this argument now that Joe Biden has really put it out there?” You can view the clip here at the 1:28 mark.

‘He is not pardoning his son … he is not doing it because he is living what it means to have a rule of law in this country.’

Speaking to MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace over a screen title that reads, “Trump, GOP call on SCOTUS to respond to guilty verdict,” former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann says the following: “He is not pardoning his son, which he could do. These are federal charges. He is not doing that. He is not doing it because he is living what it means to have a rule of law in this country.” After a cut in the clip, Weissmann adds, “If you want to know if he believes it, you can see what is actually happening with his own son.” You can view the clip here at the 2:01 mark.

‘There’s an opportunity here for Biden to say, you know, “The jury found [Hunter] guilty. This is how it’s supposed to work. Period. Paragraph. End of story.”‘

Another MSNBC clip (3:09 mark) features political commentator Molly Jong-Fast — over a screen title that reads “Press [secretary] doesn’t rule out potential that Biden could commute Hunter’s sentence” — offering the following take: “I think Joe Biden has a chance here to stand up for the rule of law, to say … the law is the law, no matter who it is, no matter if it’s Trump or Biden. And remember, part of Trump-ism’s dangerousness is that it tears down institutions, important institutions of our democracy. So there’s an opportunity here for Biden to say, you know, ‘The jury found [Hunter] guilty. This is how it’s supposed to work. Period. Paragraph. End of story.’”

Fox News reported that Jong-Fast — after learning Biden pardoned his son — told MSNBC, “I, so, I just heard it. I have to process it. I don’t have a take. I’m sorry.”

‘You heard the president say he would accept the outcome of the case; I know no other word for that but “presidential.”‘

An MSNBC clip (4:17 mark) — with a screen title that reads, “Hunter Biden found guilty in federal gun trial” — shows former acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal saying the following to host Jonathan Capehart: “For years, these conservatives have been crowing about a politicized Justice Department, Biden politicizing it, and so on. What happened today? The Justice Department convicted the president’s own son — his only living son. You heard the president say he would accept the outcome of the case; I know no other word for that but ‘presidential.’”

Capehart replied, “[Biden] even went so far as to say he wouldn’t pardon his son. That’s how much respect he has for the system.”

Interestingly, Katyal on Sunday night posted a link to an October Politico story titled, “Trump says he’s open to pardoning Hunter Biden.” Katyal wrote above the link, “Just putting this out there …”

‘It was a moment of just moral clarity on the part of Joe Biden and couldn’t have been in starker contrast to the way Donald Trump has handled his own conviction.’

CNN’s Jim Acosta — over a screen title that reads, “Pres. Biden says he will not pardon his son” — asked author Chris Whipple for his take on Biden’s declaration.

Whipple — author of “The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House” — replied by saying, “I thought it was extraordinary. I mean, it was a moment of just moral clarity on the part of Joe Biden and couldn’t have been in starker contrast to the way Donald Trump has handled his own conviction.”

You can view the clip here at the 4:45 mark.

‘He could still pardon him; he said he won’t do that … given that it’s his son … pause for a moment and think about how unbelievable that is.’

In an MSNBC clip (5:05 mark) with a screen title that reads, “Biden: ‘I accept the outcome’ of Hunter Biden trial,” former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara told host Chris Hayes the following: “He could still pardon him; he said he won’t do that … given that it’s his son … pause for a moment and think about how unbelievable that is. In a million years, if the shoe were on the other foot” — Hayes apparently uttered a dismissive huff off camera in this moment — “and Donald Trump was facing the prospect of his son being prosecuted by … a Biden holdover or Obama holdover prosecutor, not in a million, million years would that have happened. So … some of the people on the right, the people who support Donald Trump, are trying to cast this as some sort of clever ops program.”

A longer clip of Bharara’s statement was posted on the “All In with Chris Hayes” X account on June 11.

‘It’s a great reminder that one political party remains committed to the rule of law, and the other doesn’t.’

In an MSNBC clip (5:43 mark), Democrat U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts stated the following on June 11: “Hunter Biden was found guilty by a jury of his peers, just like Donald Trump. Because this is our justice system at work. The divide here is stunning. It’s a great reminder that one political party remains committed to the rule of law, and the other doesn’t.”

According to The Hill, McGovern also said, “The contrast today is just staggering. Apparently, when a Republican is convicted, it’s weaponization. But when a Democrat is convicted — the president’s son, no less — that’s justice. I mean, give me a break.”

‘One of the things that anybody who spends time around Joe Biden comes to know is that he’s had this long-running focus on how much he is bothered by abuses of power.’

Over a CNN screen title that reads, “Biden, for first time, says he won’t commute son’s sentence,” New Yorker writer Evan Osnos — who also authored “Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now” — said that Biden is “really” saying that “I don’t plan to use the powers of the office, the powers of the presidency, to provide private relief for my family.” Osnos added that, “In a sense, he’s staking out a pretty bright line between being, as he says, a president and a dad, and that’s not just an emotional expression; he’s in effect saying, ‘I don’t think that I should, I don’t have a right, even though it’s legal’ — and God knows it must be tempting — ‘to use this power in a way that is not available to so many other Americans facing similar kinds of struggles.'”

Osnos said in another cut, “There’s a kind of old-school, sort of flinty core to [Biden’s] conception of how you are to be in the system, how you are to be as a person — a moral person — and ultimately how to contend with questions of power. One of the things that anybody who spends time around Joe Biden comes to know is that he’s had this long-running focus on how much he is bothered by abuses of power.”

You can view the clip here at the 6:06 mark.

BONUS: ‘They’re not even his sons; they’re just sons of b***hes.’

Another clip (2:30 mark) features Ana Navarro of “The View” and sports a CNN logo on the bottom right of the screen — however, the clip appears to be from the June 14 episode of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” which began airing Saturdays on CNN earlier this year.

Still, the clip is worth including in this rundown. In it Navarro stated: “Joe Biden has gotten asked if he would pardon his son; he has said no. … On the other side, you’ve got Donald Trump who has said that he will pardon the January 6 insurrectionists. They’re not even his sons; they’re just sons of bitches.”

You might be surprised (or maybe not) that Navarro posted a few X entries this week after hearing that Biden did, in fact, pardon his son — and she’s backing him all the way.

“Good for @JoeBiden,” Navarro noted Monday. “America elected a convicted felon. That convicted felon pardoned his son-in-law’s father and appointed him Ambassador to France. If you support that, I don’t want to hear jack-s**t about Biden pardoning his son.”

She also posted Monday that “Woodrow Wilson pardoned his brother-in-law, Hunter deButts. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, Roger. Donald Trump pardoned his daughter’s father-in-law, Charlie Kushner. And just appointed him Ambassador to France. But tell me again how Joe Biden ‘is setting precedent’?”

Not to put too fine a point on it, Navarro posted the following on Tuesday: “Reading all these Trumpers offended Biden LIED! Trump lied about bone spurs, lied about his taxes, lied on his bank loan applications, lied to his wives, lied about hush-money payments, lied about the 2020 election results, lied about Haitians eating cats & dogs … shall I go on??”

Could it be that she doth protest too much? Nah.