Former President Donald Trump recalled his own experiences with family and friends as he empathized with President Joe Biden in the wake of his son’s guilty verdict.
Speaking with Fox News following his meeting with Republican lawmakers, the presumptive GOP nominee expressed sympathy for the president after Hunter Biden was found guilty on three federal felony gun charges.
“Well, I think it’s a very serious thing. I understand that whole subject,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Aishah Hasni.
“I understand it pretty well because I’ve had it with people who have it in their family,” explained the former president who lost his older brother, Fred Trump Jr., in 1981 at the age of 42.
Trump has often spoken of his older sibling whom he much admired. But his battle with alcoholism marked the younger Donald Trump who has maintained a lifestyle free from alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs.
“It’s a very tough thing. It’s a very tough situation for a father, it’s a very tough situation for a brother or sister, and it goes on and it’s not stopping, whether it’s alcohol or drugs or whatever it may be,” Trump said.
“It’s a tough thing, and so that’s a tough moment for the family. It’s a tough moment for any family involved in that,” he reiterated.
“Showing quite a bit of empathy there,” Hasnie said after her interview. “But he doesn’t go as far as to say whether he would pardon his own son if he were in that similar situation.”
Biden confirmed Thursday that he will not pardon Hunter, having previously said he would not do so if he were found guilty in the federal gun trial.
“I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything,” he said. “I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that, and I will not pardon him.”