(LifeSiteNews) — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is catching attention for contradictory statements about the prospect of a pardon for troubled presidential son Hunter Biden, suggesting the notion is an invention of his political enemies a day after floating it in an interview.
On August 12, the New York Post reported that Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, told the paper he would consider clemency for members of President Joe Biden’s family, who are mired in various scandals pertaining to business deals around the world in which they are accused of profiting off the promise of access to Biden, who at the time was Vice President of the United States.
“After we have shut down the FBI, after we have refurbished the Department of Justice, after we have systemically pardoned anyone who was a victim of a political motivated persecution – from Donald Trump and peaceful January 6 protests – then I would be open to evaluating pardons for members of the Biden family in the interest of moving the nation forward,” Ramaswamy is quoted as telling the Post.
The answer echoes one Ramaswamy has given before about openness to pardoning people on both sides of the political aisle in the interest of reconciliation:
Expose the rot. Reveal the truth. End the weaponization. End the corrupt war in Ukraine & repayment of family bribes with taxpayer $$. We have a very long way to go, but I believe deep in my bones that we will get there. Once we have unearthed TRUTH & secured justice, I would be… pic.twitter.com/Lu2tSiQlXT
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 12, 2023
The next day, however, the candidate denied having “any plans to pardon Hunter Biden,” describing the story as “planted trash” and insinuating it was the work of super PACs working on behalf of unspecified GOP primary competitors:
I respect my competitors in this GOP primary, but it’s deeply disappointing to see some of their teams – more precisely, their Super PACs – spew so many lies in response to our momentum. No, I don’t have any plans to pardon Hunter Biden. It’s planted trash. When you strike the…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 14, 2023
That same day, Ramaswamy appeared on Fox News, where host Maria Bartiromo asked him about the matter. “That was misquoted and purposeful opposition research with a headline, you know how this game is played,” he claimed, reiterating his support for an impeachment inquiry against Biden, then going on to confirm that while he may be backing away from pardoning the Bidens, he would not be interested in prosecuting them, either.
“But what I’ve said is fast forward to January 21, 2025, my second day in office, after we’ve issued those pardons [for former President Donald Trump and January 6 detainees], after we’ve set into motion shutting down the FBI, not just reforming it, actually restoring the integrity of our government,” he added. “The question is, is the next thing that I then wanna do, after we’ve set our nation forward, is it to then focus my agenda on persecuting or prosecuting Joe Biden or his family? My answer to that question is no … and so no, I’m not gonna be guided by vengeance and grievance. I’m going to be guided by integrity. But the first step in getting there is there can be no reconciliation without truth.”
Bartiromo did not ask any follow-up questions to clarify Ramaswamy’s position on the matter or inconsistencies between his statements.
Currently holding third place in national polling for the 2024 Republican nomination, Ramaswamy has generated significant interest as a passionate “anti-woke” voice and has won favor from the political Right’s populist faction for his positions on issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as his complimentary approach to frontrunner Trump while attacking Trump’s chief rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Some have speculated that Ramaswamy’s true purpose in the race is not to win the nomination but to prevent DeSantis from consolidating enough support to win it in exchange for a role in a hypothetical second Trump administration, something Ramaswamy denies.
Others have questioned inconsistencies between the candidate’s current positions and statements he made as recently as last year, such as on the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which he now says was a reaction to “systematic & pervasive censorship of citizens” for which Trump wasn’t responsible but previously wrote was due to Trump’s “abhorrent” actions feeding a “persecution complex that swallowed much of the Republican party whole”; and sexualizing minors; he suggested in 2022 that simply “wait[ing] until kids turn 8 years old before public schools teach them about sex …would have avoided a national fuss about nothing.”
On Monday, Ramaswamy also broke with conservatives in reiterating that he was “probably the only person in the modern history” of the Republican Party open to proposals for decriminalizing so-called “hard” drugs such as “psychedelics, from ayahuasca to ketamine.”