First Lady Jill Biden responded to a point-blank question about President Joe Biden pardoning her stepson, Hunter Biden. A body language expert told us she probably would have preferred not to, though.
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00:00First Lady Jill Biden responded to a point-blank question about President Joe Biden pardoning
00:08her stepson, Hunter Biden. A body language expert told us she probably would have preferred
00:12not to, though. The first lady was speaking to the families of National Guard members
00:16at the White House on December 4th. She seemed to be finished with her remarks, hugging some
00:20of the children in attendance, when a reporter called out,
00:24Dr. Biden, what's your stance on the pardon for Hunter?"
00:28At first, Jill seemed to ignore the question entirely, focused on the kids surrounding
00:32her. But eventually, she leaned back over to the microphone and said,
00:36"'Of course I support the pardon of my son,' as an instrumental rendition of Sleigh Ride
00:40blared over the speakers. Is there something simmering beneath the surface there?"
00:44We asked our in-house body language expert and behavior analyst, Tracy Brown, CSP, for
00:48her thoughts on the matter, and she had quite a few revelations to share. Brown immediately
00:53noticed that Dr. Biden was doing her best to ice out the reporter, telling Nicki Swift,
00:57Besides ignoring the question at first and continuing to hug the kids, when she gets
01:01to the mic, she barely gets over to it. That made her answer almost inaudible, even though
01:06she appeared to be speaking pretty forcefully. Brown continued,
01:09"'So it's something she really doesn't want to address and wants to get out of there as
01:13quick as possible.' That makes some sense. President Biden's December 1st pardon of Hunter,
01:18which came as the president's son was awaiting sentencing for federal convictions in both
01:21June and September, has drawn serious criticism from both sides of the aisle. A YouGov poll
01:26found that 50 percent of respondents disapprove of the pardon. It surely didn't help that
01:31the president had previously promised not to pardon Hunter."
01:34"'I'm not gonna do anything I said. I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I
01:40will not pardon him.'"
01:41Those remarks came in June, after Hunter was convicted of lying about his drug use on a
01:45form he filled out so he could purchase a gun. In September, Hunter pleaded guilty to
01:49tax evasion charges.
01:51As Joe finishes out his last days in office, his final actions seem to be coming under
01:55intense scrutiny, which could easily be spilling over into Jill's life in a way she doesn't
01:59want to discuss publicly. Brown noticed that one part of this question in particular is
02:04a sticky pain point for Jill, and it showed in her reaction. Brown noted,
02:08"'Of interest' is when she says the word pardon. She closes her eyes for an extended period
02:12and raises her eyebrows. This type of facial response can often indicate the subject is
02:16a tender one."
02:17Brown continued,
02:18"'It's typically because it's something they don't want to see.' The question was certainly
02:22a loaded one, especially since President-elect Trump and other staunch critics have used
02:26Hunter Biden's conviction to swipe at the entire Biden family."
02:29Brown added,
02:30"'Of course, there's lots of negativity and controversy around the topic. Raised eyebrows
02:35show emphasis.' Dr. Biden's body language made it clear she would rather not have been
02:39discussing the actions of her stepson or husband at the moment. If anything, she appeared to
02:43be incredibly over the whole issue. Though she probably wasn't thrilled about the results
02:47of the election, we'd be willing to guess Jill will be happy to be away from the stress
02:51of the White House in a couple of months."