DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Democrats and corporate media figures were highly critical about pardons being issued preemptively prior to the end of President Donald Trump’s first term.
Former President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Jan. 6 House Select Committee, and members of his family on the last day of his term of office. One prominent critic of the concept of preemptive pardons during Trump’s first term was then-Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who was one of the committee members to whom Biden granted clemency on Monday.
“Have you ever heard of somebody getting a preemptive pardon who was innocent of all crime, who’s just an innocent person? Have you ever heard of that? Just somebody getting a blanket pardon and they’re an innocent person,” MSNBC host Joy Reid asked Schiff in 2020. Schiff responded, “No, it’s the president’s own family. It’s people that have been covering up for the president in addition to his own family.”
Later in the video, when asked by CNN host Wolf Blitzer if accepting the pardons would be viewed as an “admission of guilt,” Schiff answered in the affirmative.
“I certainly would view it that way. I think millions of Americans would view it that way,” Schiff replied at the time. “If there was no belief in criminality, why would he think a pardon was necessary?”
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann echoed similar sentiments in an appearance with MSNBC host Brian Williams.
“Is there an innocent explanation for someone to seek preemptive pardons for family members? Would you do that if you knew you were innocent and just worried about outside forces?” Williams asked.
“The answer to that is going to be no,” Weissmann responded. “If you haven’t done anything wrong, you sit there and go, what do you need a preemptive pardon for?”
Elie Mystal, a frequent guest on MSNBC, hinted that state and local prosecutors were a backstop against pardons from Trump.
“We have Tish James. We have Xavier Becerra. Mimi Rocah is literally my PA in my town,” Mystal told “Morning Joy” guest host Jason Johnson. “There—there will be opportunities to prosecute these people, regardless if they—if they abuse the pardon power as they are thinking.”
“Hopefully, Elie, there will be a skyfall on this entire crime family, and there will be another day for them to die,” Johnson said.
During his last term, Trump considered preemptively pardoning his children as well as former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City in the wake of his efforts to contest the 2020 election.
Trump himself was later indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over his efforts to contest the 2020 election results in Georgia, while Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records and secured a conviction against him from a Manhattan jury.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Harold Hutchison.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
If it weren’t for double standards, the Left would have no standards at all.
Must go after all who are connected to this Covid Vaccine Corruption
If something comes up they’ll be prepared, after all, innocent people don’t need to be pardoned.
But Trump never pardoned himself or his family. They were not guilty of crimes they were accused of, just victims of the Democrats plot to ruin Trump and his family. Any idiot can see that, except for Demoncrats.
Every single person pardoned is now “guilty” because they accepted the pardons. Therefore, all security clearances need to be pulled and any J6 “staff” still working for the government need to be fired. Let them try to find a job after that.
No news outlets will condemn this.So corrupt!
Do what you want, as long as you’re a Democrat.
They are all politicians or otherwise in the public eye, so a total embarrassment would be killer to them, and if they try to defend themselves their goose is still cooked
just remember that biden’s “brothers in crime” are the clintons and ohbummers. they need to go down. just think of what they could tell about his(biden’s) crimes to get a “deal”.
“Guilty as not-yet-charged”? Preemptive pardoning sounds highly suspicious to me.
I’ve said it for decades: “IT’S OKAY IF YOU’RE A DEMOCRAT”! Remember Mel Brooks in “History of the World”? Its good to be the king… We need to put it behind us and fight against the lawfare that is/will be waged against EVERY agenda item!
Joy Reid… pot, kettle black. Woke is broke and you ate turning against what you have been loyal to and who you lied for. Hypocrite you are now trying to place blame and find a new connection, like the Democratic party is broke. We’ll hete is news for you…woke is broke too. Live with it or repent.
I’m sorry, but lying biden, aka the POTATUS, is a stooge and his entire presidency needs to be thoroughly investigated. Everything he’s done, including all of his family and crony pardons should be rescinded. He’s a traitor and should be treated as such. His entire political existence is nothing but a sham.
With the “democrats”, their position is never about responsibility, duty, honesty or decency…. it’s always about non-accountability, outright lies and misleading commentary. That’s who they are, like it or not.
The democ RATS think that they are above the law,unfortunately they seem to be.
The whole biden family are crooks,hense the pardons.Why else would he do it? They are all millionaires getting their money from communists .He ,Brandon, is a terrible person,a career politician ,and now the worst president our country has ever seen.He should have never been voted in.