More pardons, measures to curb domestic political extremism and more military aid to Israel are among the plans Biden and his administration have in the final days before handing the baton to President-elect Donald Trump and his team.
Biden will end his presidency with another international trip, during which will travel to Italy and the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella. Biden’s trip to the Vatican is aimed at discussing ways to promote world peace with Pope Francis, and his time with Italian heads of state will serve to highlight the strength of the US-Italian alliance, The white house he said. Biden also plans to thank Melona for her leadership of the G7 over the past year and discuss future challenges facing the world’s leading countries.
President Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni deliver prepared remarks during a meeting in the Oval Office on March 1, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
After Biden’s return from overseas, the president will address the nation twice more before Trump’s inauguration, Biden administration sources told NBC News. The first speech will focus on foreign policy, while the second will serve as a farewell speech for Biden to be delivered during his final days in the Oval Office. Neither speech was fully drafted, sources said Saturday.
Sources familiar with the matter have also indicated that Biden is considering additional pardons for people deemed to have received unusually harsh sentences, measures to combat domestic violent extremism in the US and additional military funding — roughly $8 billion, the State Department said — Israel is in the midst of a war with Hamas.
The pardons come after Biden set a record for the largest single-day pardon when he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people in mid-December. Sources told NBC News that Biden is still considering preemptive pardons for those who could face political retaliation from Trump.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Justice on Monday, he indicated that he is still considering whether he will process an additional 200 cases on January 6 in the final days before Trump takes office, during which he is expected to pardon many of those convicted of crimes related to their involvement in the day’s events.
A scene from the riots at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
In addition to the action plans Biden and his administration plan to take before Trump’s inauguration, it’s also important that Biden won’t act under pressure to strengthen protections for transgender student athletes or cancel any additional student loan debt, according to the Associated Press.
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Biden’s actions after Trump’s election victory in November drew criticism from both sides of the aisle.
“This is one of the most pathetic lame ducks we’ve seen in a Democratic administration,” a spokesman for the progressive nonprofit Justice Democrats said last month. “There is no leadership coming from the White House,” a Democrat close to senior lawmakers also said. “There is a total vacuum.”
Some Democratic lawmakers, such as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, were angered by Biden’s lack of resistance to many of Trump’s Cabinet picks.
President Biden and President-elect Trump (Getty Images/File)
Republicans, on the other hand, contested Biden’s actions during the final weeks of his presidency as an insult to the American public who voted for Trump.
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“On the way out the door, President Biden governs as he has always wanted, as a far-left ideologue who wants to push the country in a direction that is divorced from the will of the voters,” said GOP campaign strategist Colin Reed.
“While Trump can undo anything Biden does, Biden is trying to create litigation traps for Trump that will discourage investors from projects on public land,” added Steve Milloy, a fellow at the American Energy Institute after news broke Monday that Biden was re- move to limit domestic energy production on a certain land. The move is part of a series of actions Biden has taken in his final weeks to bolster the country’s defenses against Trump’s plans to reverse many of his green energy initiatives.
Trump exploded Biden’s last-minute policy decisions in an interview Monday, calling the lame-duck president difficult for a “smooth transition.”
“I see it just came out that Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling on 625 million acres of US coastal land. That’s just ridiculous. I’m going to rescind it immediately. I have the right to rescind the ban immediately. What is why he’s doing this?” Trump said during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “You know we have something that no one else has. No one has it to the extent that we have it, and there will be more when we’re done, because I’ll be able to expand.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but had not heard back by press time.
