Ousted Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) insisted Monday that President Joe Biden did not lie about his plans to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, instead arguing that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory served as "new context."
"Why are we saying he’s lying when the context has changed?" Bowman said on CNN's NewsNight, igniting instant crosstalk among his fellow panelists. "This is a new context."
"He did lie," CNN contributor Scott Jennings responded.
"You lost me on that," former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams said to Bowman, shaking his head. "What is the new context?"
"President Trump!" Bowman said.
"So what?" former Virginia Rep. Scott Taylor (R.) said.
"What do you mean 'So what?' Multiple times indicted, convicted, insurrectionist, wants to destroy the FBI, President Trump—that’s the new context," said Bowman, an anti-Israel progressive who lost his primary in June to a more moderate, pro-Israel Democrat.
On Sunday, Biden "issued a full and unconditional pardon" of Hunter Biden for his crimes of illegally buying a gun and tax evasion, as well as any other federal crimes committed between 2014 and 2024. The president argued in a statement that his son was "singled out only because he is my son—and that is wrong."
Biden repeatedly insisted for months that he would not pardon Hunter Biden. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated that claim as recently as Nov. 7—two days after the election.
Earlier in the segment, PoliticsGirl host Leigh McGowan defended Biden, arguing that the president would have "believed in the faith of the Justice Department" and wouldn't have issued the pardon had Vice President Kamala Harris won the election.
"What we’re talking about with Hunter is what is going to happen to Hunter in the Donald Trump administration," she said. "They are showing us with the people they are putting charge that they are not planning to follow the law. It is not planning to be normal."
"The rules have changed because they're changing the rules of the game as they play it," she added.
Bowman’s remarks followed Jennings and Williams's discussion of how Biden should have handled the pardon given the president’s repeated promises. Williams said Biden "should have just ducked the question over the last six months."
"If it was subject to making a decision based on who was going to be the next president of the United States, they should have just not answered the question when asked directly, 'Do you plan to pardon your son?'" Williams said.
Jennings argued that Biden instead could have issued the pardon in June before Hunter Biden’s gun case.
"Or he could have done it today and just sent out a one-sentence thing and said 'Look, I’m not letting my kid go to jail,' and people might have said 'you know what, it’s honest,'" Jennings said. "But this statement is garbage."
In response to Bowman, Taylor pointed out that the special prosecutor in Hunter Biden’s case, David Weiss, rejected the president’s claims that Hunter Biden was singled out.
"I understand why [Biden] did it, but he absolutely lied numerous times," Taylor said.
"You don’t change your mind, man? You don’t change your perspective based on new context?" Bowman asked. "What are you talking about?"
NewsNight host Abby Phillip also pushed back on Bowman’s claim.
"Haven’t we known all along that Donald Trump was going to put in place people at the Justice Department if he won, which we all knew was a possibility, who would go after Trump’s political enemies, who would go after the so-called deep state?" Phillip said. "That was a known thing. So I don’t see how that context has really changed."