Hunter Biden said that his father, President Joe Biden, made his "greatest mistake" in office by appointing Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general. Biden made the remarks on the "I’ve Had It" podcast on Sunday, during an appearance where host Jennifer Welch criticized Garland's Department of Justice for not charging former President Donald Trump and for investigating Biden himself.
"My take is this, and removing myself from it as much as I can, my personal feelings, is the single greatest mistake of my father’s administration was the leadership of Merrick Garland," Hunter Biden stated. He added that the current situation "can almost… by the way, the buck has to stop with my dad. He was the president and he chose him."
Biden also asserted that President Biden maintained a strict separation between his administration and the Department of Justice, stating, "once he chose him, he played by the, you know, a higher standard than the Marquess of Queensberry rules. He played by the Constitution and the tradition that the president will never, you know, particularly since Nixon, involve himself in any decision-making as relates to anything at the Department of Justice. So, I guarantee you there was a division between church and state there."
Hunter Biden further criticized Garland for failing to prosecute Trump in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot, which he described as a "planned conspiracy" by the Trump administration to undermine the 2020 election results.
"If Merrick Garland had started a completely 100% legitimate investigation rather than thinking like let’s not fan the flames… did you not watch what I watched? Did you not see the people storming the Capitol of the United States of America, beating cops and running congressmen and senators literally out of the building? You didn’t see that? You didn’t see a president and know that it was a concerted and planned effort on their part beginning all the way back from the day before the election when they knew they were going," Biden said.
Both Welch and Hunter Biden characterized Garland as a "moderate," suggesting his nomination was an attempt by President Biden to appeal to Republicans and perhaps as a gesture of goodwill after former President Barack Obama had previously considered Garland for a Supreme Court vacancy.
"Obama picks this milquetoast candidate. Your dad is a decent man, felt bad about what happened to Merrick Garland. And he played integrity politics. Like, well, ‘I’m going to make him whole and make him attorney general.' And then Merrick Garland gets there, and he’s like, ‘Well, we can’t upset these crusty White Republicans,'" Welch said.
"Massive mistake," Hunter Biden responded.
Hunter Biden had been under investigation since 2018. He was later pardoned by his father for any offenses committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024, during the final weeks of Joe Biden's presidency.