CNN reporters and anchors said Monday that President Biden’s decision was yes forgive his family members in the last minutes of his administration tarnished his reputation and was “a stain on his legacy”.
“Well, as it turns out, Anderson, another promise has been broken. This is exactly how he chose to approach the justice system. This is a decision that will raise so many alarming questions about the legal advantage that this now And it would indeed be one of the last acts for President Biden as the current president,” CNN’s MJ Lee said, noting that Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in December 2020 that the US will not see preemptive pardons under his administration and that his approach to the justice system will be completely different from that of President Trump.
Biden’s pardon applies to James Biden, Sarah Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens and Francis Biden, the White House announced during Trump’s inauguration ceremony. The now-former president claimed that his family could be the subject of “politically motivated investigations” after he leaves office.
Lee said earlier in her statement that this was another way the former president tarnished his own legacy.
PRESIDENT TRUMP CALLED BIDEN’S LAST-MINUTE PARDON ‘UNFORTUNATE’ AT THE CEREMONY SIGNING
President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. B (Susan Walsh/AP)
CNN commentator and “The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued during the debate that pardoning family members is “much muddier” than his Liz Cheney’s last-minute pardons, Gene. Mark Milley and Anthony Fauci.
“It’s just unseemly,” CNN anchor John King said. “If you’re going to do it, have the guts to do it in the light of day and explain it to the American people. It’s a stain on his legacy to do it like this. We could argue about, did Donald Trump promise retaliation? Yes, if you’re the president of the United States The country that said the curse of Donald Trump is that he did not respect democracy and did not respect the norms, have the courage to look the American people in the eye and explain what you are doing.”
Former Obama aide David Axelrod said the timing of the pardon looked suspicious.
“The fact is that Trump has been saying this for a long time. It doesn’t explain why in the last 10 minutes of your presidency you threw out a statement, it just made the whole thing look distasteful,” Axelrod said.
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David Axelrod speaks during CNN on January 20, 2025. (Screenshot/CNN)
In December 2020, CNN host Jake Tapper asked Biden if he was worried about rumors that Trump, whom he had just defeated, would issue a wave of preemptive pardons for some of his closest confidantes.
“Well, I’m concerned about the precedent it sets in how the rest of the world views us as a nation of law and justice,” he said at the time.
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“You won’t see that kind of approach to pardons in our administration,” Biden added. “Nor will you see in our administration a tweet-based approach to policymaking. You know, it’s going to be a completely different way that we approach the justice system.”
Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
