Biden weighing up preemptive pardons to try and 'protect' Trump critics

I don't know if you heard the former Democrat, now independent Senator Joe Manchin, had a recommendation that he made, he was talking about cleaning the slate, and he suggested that President Biden should pardon president elect Trump. What do you think of that? Well, I've said to people, that I'm in that category as well.

Really? I did see what Manchin had to say. Remember that Trump, has not been convicted of anything in the federal realm.

Those convictions are state convictions. So I'm not talking about state here. I'm talking about things that could impede, our federal government.

And so, I believe that Manchin may be to something that you would support pardoning Trump for the federal crimes. Yes, I could. Absolutely.

because the Supreme Court has made it very clear, that, he has preemptively pardoned of anything he may do as president because of the immunity decision. Absolutely. Really quick.

I know we have to go. there's been a lot of threats made about whoever related to DOJ for prosecutors who were involved in the prosecution of Trump and otherwise special counsel Jack Smith, likely to be somebody on an enemies list of sort. If you recommend to Biden, do you include the federal employees in prosecuting special counsel who were actively on these cases to protect them as well?

Yes, absolutely. Jack Smith name is on my list. Liz Cheney, his name is on my list.

I think that they all should be preemptively pardoned. because I think there are people who Trump may bring into this government who will go after these people in a serious way, and there's no need to subject them, to that, even if they are found not guilty. Why put families through that?

Why put these people to that, that kind of expense, that kind of worry? that should not be. I think Liz Cheney is a great patriot.

And I also think there will be a lot of MAGA people going after her just days after President Biden pardoned his son. Politico is now reporting that his team is also discussing preemptive pardons for prominent figures of the MAGA enemies list, including Doctor Anthony Fauci, Senator elect Adam Schiff and also Liz Cheney, who of course endorsed Kamala Harris and led the January 6th, investigation on Capitol Hill. Is this a good idea?

I think so, Democrats lean into it. I promise you, Donald Trump is going to pardon everybody. I made a list in the back while ago, and I'm wearing what I call my Steve Bannon outfit.

I got him so many layers because it's so cold and deep in New York. I look like Steve Bannon. That's just one name Steve Bannon.

What about Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Charles Kushner. If you get pardoned by him, you can become the ambassador to France evidently as well. Democrats, in all seriousness, I'm tired of the pearl clutching of we're better than that.

We're can't do all of that. If Joe if he's going to do it, let's make sure that we do it as well, because we're going to be there at the end having to make up all this other stuff. And Schiff, who is on the list, he said he doesn't think it's a good idea.

He said it looks defensive. Well, Adam Schiff, listen, the question is, will they accept a pardon? Because if you don't think he did anything wrong, which they didn't, they might want to not take a pardon.

But I will say this. You're talking about an unprecedented crew of people coming in there and they're listen, even if they don't indict you, they can investigate you into bankruptcy, torture you with FBI investigations. Kash Patel is evidently going to be our next FBI director.

Is that what you want to be dealing with? Trump? During the time he was out of office, President Trump got actually indicted by a grand jury trial, bankrupt him.

They trade him. Oh, my God. Created his house.

The same thing. They raided his house because he had, he had documents that he stored there. I don't think that, Liz Cheney's any secret documents stored.

If she does, obviously they should be reading her house, too. But, look, they have already said that they're going to come after these people. And so from my perspective, I like Amen to everything Chuck just said.

I'm tired of the pearl clutching to. I'm tired of the Republicans way in. Just for the record, if they're handing out pardons, I'll take one.

Yeah, I'll take one, too, because, by the way, they're coming. Yeah, because he took a lot of trash on TV we've seen on TV, too. Yeah.

So that's all of us in 2016, they said he was going to go after Hillary Rodham Clinton. He tried. He never did.

He got he never did. So this notion, he always, you know, got it. His first enemies.

Come on, come on. With all the folks that I mentioned, we didn't go after them. He was just trying to protect them.

All of them evidently broke the law in the court. The Paul Manafort and the Roger stones in that group. Joe Biden is going to pardon people.

There's no doubt. He I mean, obviously he did one where he no one's questioned him. I'm party the Hunter Biden no one the problem the problem, the question was when he said that he wouldn't do it.

And then he did, because I can't go down the street here in New York and everybody, they'll say, you damn right he should have pardoned his son. You better be careful. If in New York, I'm just saying there's 140 other people that I don't understand.

Do you think that Biden. I mean, the pardon powers to pardon power. Do you think that he has the power?

He should just do what he wants on that front. He's the president. He can pardon whoever he wants.

Abby. I'm sorry. He can.

That's what he can do. And in his first term, he pardoned 143 people. Just so we're all clear, so people can realize it's not just for people that Trump hundred and 43, which is a pretty normal number for a president.

It is. Absolutely. They all.

That's why you don't see me. Go ahead. Yeah.

Look, if he really wants to be magnanimous and go down in history, here's what he should do is he should pardon Trump's enemies and he should pardon Trump. He will go down as the great uniter that stopped the cycle of tit for tat prosecutions. Greatest uniter since Abraham Lincoln.

Trump need a pardon. So I mean, in principle, I mean what Jack Smith said in dropping the charges is that it left open the possibility of bringing them back up after the here's the so. And do you really think it's mostly symbolic that Trump is going to take that and say, well, no, not yet.

I'm going to disarm. I care about Trump. I care about the country.

No, but I'm saying, what is he going to? Because you're saying if if Biden stops it for Trump, there's not going to be a reaction. Do you think that that's a good uniting America?

That's good. Why are Democrats always the ones who are being asked to unite America? Why is the onus always on us?

There's always two standards, right? The Democrats have to be the uniter is Democrats have to behave ethically. Democrats can't, you know, Joe Biden.

Ooh, Joe Biden lied. Donald Trump lies as easily as he breathes and nobody even pays attention anymore. Are you are you implicitly suggesting here that there is a degree of kind of like not playing by the rules that would be happening here, or behaving unethically?

I am saying outright that I think Democrats need to take the gloves off. Evidently, America voted to break the paradigm. To break what everything happened before.

And so Democrats need to stop being in a defensive posture as to what the mainstream media is going to say that Joe Biden. Oh, he lied, oh no. Or that Adam Schiff, oh my goodness, he might look guilty.

He took a pardon. Take the pardon. Because these guys are kind of come after you.

The norms have been broken and they've been broken by Donald Trump. Evidently the country wants the norms to have been broken. So let's start behaving like them.

I mean, from my perspective, I'm tired of always being asked to be the one to unite the country. No, he shouldn't she shouldn't pardon Donald Trump. Absolutely not.

But he should pardon Democrats because that's what Donald Trump would do. And that's what America wants Democrats to start acting like that to. President Biden sparked a wave of bipartisan backlash this week, announcing the sweeping pardon of his son Hunter.

But according to new Politico reporting, it may not be the only pardon that Biden grants Jonathan Martin reports this President Biden's senior President Joe Biden's senior aides, are conducting a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue preemptive pardons to a range of current and former public officials who could be targeted with president elect Donald Trump's return to the white House. One House Democrat already has some ideas about who should be on that list. Jack Smith name is on my list.

Liz Cheney. His name is on my list. I think that they all should be preemptively pardoned, because I think there are people who Trump may bring into this government who will go after these people in a serious way, and there's no need to subject them, to that panel is back.

Kate Bedingfield, how real do you think this is? And, how how important does the white House see this? Oh, I think it's real.

I think they are, I mean, look, you heard, President Biden and then Vice President Harris on the campaign trail. Talk about what they believed, Donald Trump's abuses of power, would mean. And I think that they're taking every opportunity here to explore the options they have left in the time that they have left in office to, protect people who may be subject to that attack.

So, yes, I think it's I think it is absolutely serious process they're undergoing. We'll see what the ultimate outcome is. But, I would imagine that, Biden views this as an opportunity, to ensure that people who don't deserve to be targeted in that way, aren't people in the white House and the Biden campaign.

And then the Harris campaign had legitimate fears during the race of what would happen if Trump won, really do fearing potential legal, persecution and also like what the cost would do. That being said, the context here matters, and that this is coming right after a lot of Democrats are very upset with how Joe Biden rolled out his, his pardon of his son Hunter, doing it as a one off as being like, oh, I'm very, very concerned about political persecution. And I'm only doing my son.

And they're like, well, if you're so worried, then why not include this with lots of other people? And so you have to put it within the context of that. I think that's part of the reason why some of these stories are coming out now.