After applauding Trump pardons, and with little to no scrutiny, Fox put President Biden’s pardon of son Hunter under a MAGA microscope.
Yesterday, Fox host Sandra Smith asked conservative guest John Yoo, “What should people think about [the Hunter Biden pardon]?"
Of course, that was less a question and more a cue for Yoo to start attacking President Biden.
Yoo took the hint.
YOO: I'm sad to say this is an ignominious end to a failed presidency. The founders clearly gave the president the power to pardon whoever he wanted of federal crimes. But the purpose of the pardon power is either to break up conspiracies against the United States or to show mercy.
President Biden claims that this is selective prosecution don't hold any water. For example, Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury of his peers in Delaware. He pled guilty to wide ranging tax fraud and evasion, and most importantly, he was prosecuted by the Justice Department at which his father sits at the head.
The president, Joe Biden, is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. If he's accusing anyone of vindictive prosecution, it's himself.
FACT CHECK (added by Ellen): Biden was obviously not in charge of his son’s case. In his statement about the pardon, he said, “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”
Yoo continued attacking, while claiming to be saddened.
YOO: The reason I think this is sad is that it's President Biden showing, I think, why the American people rejected the Biden-Harris administration. … Here's a President who accused Trump of being a liar, yet here Biden broke his fundamental commitment to the American people. He's accused Trump of meddling with the justice system, here Biden is meddling with the justice system. He's accused Trump of putting his family first, and here he's put his own family first.
Smith piled on:
SMITH: Not only did he say over and over and over again that he would not pardon his son and here he is in fact, but he claims that his son was targeted just because his last name was Biden.
Guest Tom Dupree made the criticism unanimous but he upped the stakes by suggesting it’s Biden exhibiting “total disrespect for the rule of law,” even as Felon-Elect Donald Trump just nominated a guy credibly accused of sex trafficking minors as attorney general. "This is total disrespect for the American people and total disrespect for the rule of law,” Dupree said, with a straight face. “I would say that the last few years has just been a massive waste of time from all the prosecutors and investigators and whistleblowers who put in time to bring Hunter Biden to justice, but it's much worse than a waste of time because at the end of the day, this is going to undermine people's faith in the system."
FLASHBACK (added by Ellen): Fox celebrated Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of violating constitutional rights. After Trump pardoned Conrad Black, who was found guilty of mail fraud and obstruction in a ploy to swindle millions of dollars from investors, but who also wrote a glowing book about Trump, Black got at least two opportunities to visit Fox News, play the victim, praise Trump and attack the FBI. When Trump pardoned war criminals championed by Pete Hegseth (yes, that Pete Hegseth), he slobbered on the air, “God bless the president for having the courage -- which a lot of other presidents wouldn't do -- to pardon those men."
In July, Trump indicated he wants to pardon the Jan. 6 insurrectionists – the folks who tried to violently overthrow the 2020 presidential election and threatened to hang his own vice president. Trump called them “warriors,” “unbelievable patriots” and “hostages.”
I wonder what these folks’ reactions will be if Trump follows through on that.
You can watch the discussion below, from the December 2, 2024 Your World.
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President Biden did the only appropriate thing he could, given that Little Felon Trump and the Vance White House are loading up the DOJ and the FBI with horror shows like Pam Bondi, Matt Gaetz (who will likely have a high level DOJ position, just not one that has to go through confirmation) and Kash Patel. We can look forward to prosecutions of President Biden and his family (albeit not Hunter at this time), of the Obamas, of the Clintons, and of anyone the Vance White House feels is “the enemy within”. Remember that Little Felon Trump’s first priority, as he’s openly stated is “Retribution”, aka “Revenge Against My Enemies”.
Past that, we can guarantee that the Jan 6 insurrectionists will be pardoned, which will only embolden them to commit further acts of violence, since there are no consequences for them. On the other hand, if people fight back against Angry Right Wingers’ attacks, that will likely be met with prosecutions. Welcome to the world of how elections have consequences.
