'Stop Calling It a Lie': Whoopi Goldberg Argues Joe Biden Had 'No Intention' of Pardoning Son Hunter Before 2024 Election

Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Farah Griffin got into a tense exchange over President Joe Biden's controversial decision to pardon his son Hunter for his recent criminal convictions.

Alyssa — who previously worked as an aide in the Donald Trump administration, but has frequently criticized the former president — expressed her discomfort with the situation as most Americans have to "face consequences" for their crimes and don't have anybody "politically connected" to come "sweep in" and save them.

"This feeds the notion to a lot of this country that there’s a different set of rules for folks in power, and when we sit here and say, like: ‘Well, Donald Trump did X, Y, and Z, and how did he get elected?’ To a lot of this country, it just becomes noise," she explained. "If you commit crimes and somebody powerful and connected in D.C., right, left, center, Biden, Trump, you’re going to be able to get away with it."

Alyssa also said she had a problem with the 81-year-old initially claiming he would not pardon his son, only to change his mind shortly before leaving the White House.

"He said so many times he wasn’t going to pardon him. That, to me, is lying to the public," she added. "That’s why they don’t trust Washington or politicians and I know a lot of us like Joe Biden, but I find it disappointing and bad for our institutions ... I respect it as a parent. I understand why he would do it, but I wanted to understand why lie about it for so long?"

However, Whoopi cut in and suggested her co-host should "stop calling it a lie."

"It’s a precedent for all of us to open our eyes because we’ve elected somebody who was in a similar situation who didn’t have a drug problem, who knew what he was doing," the Sister Act star added. "Who clearly stood and said, ‘I can do this’ and he did it."

"I think Biden had no intentions of pardoning Hunter, and I think the more stuff that went down… I think he said, ‘well, why am I busting my behind to stay straight and do this when nobody is? When no one else is?’" she concluded.

Alyssa replied, "I think he thought he was going to win [the election]. And I wish he would have been honest with the public."

As OK! previously reported, Hunter was found guilty of federal tax and gun charges earlier this year. Two counts carried maximum sentences of 10 years behind bars, and a third charge had a maximum of five years in prison.

President Biden initially claimed he would not interfere in the trial by issuing a pardon, but on December 1, he announced he'd changed his mind.

"I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further," he said at the time. "No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong."