Former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza on Monday harshly criticized former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons of President Donald Trump’s political opponents.
Biden on Monday preemptively pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and Jan. 6 committee members, stating that they do not deserve to be “targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.” Cillizza, during an inauguration livestream on his YouTube channel, said Biden’s move was idiotic because of the harmful “precedent” it establishes and the hypocrisy it displays.
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“I think it is disastrously bad. I think it is incredibly stupid. I think it sets a really dangerous precedent. I mean, look, Biden said he wouldn’t preemptively pardon people, and he said he was worried about Trump preemptively pardoning people at the end of 2020,” Cillizza said. “Like, you know, it just — it’s so hypocritical. I think it makes people look guilty too. Like, I actually don’t think it’s good. I think it makes Anthony Fauci or Mark Milley — like, why do they need to be pardoned if they’ve done nothing wrong?”
“But so I think it is really, really dumb. I can’t believe he did it. I think it’s really — whoever was advising him — really bad advice. I think the end of Biden’s presidency has been a total disaster,” he added. “From pardoning Hunter Biden until now, whether it’s the … pretending that the 28th Amendment was ratified, the ERA Amendment — like, it’s just been all over the place … And I just think it’s a disaster.”
Biden pardoned his son Hunter in December after a Delaware jury convicted him on federal gun charges and he pled guilty to federal tax charges in California. After the former president pardoned Trump’s rivals on Monday, he issued preemptive pardons for his brothers Frank and James, James’ wife Sara Biden, his sister Valerie Owens and her husband, John Owens shortly before Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.
Biden’s pardons for Hunter and his five additional family members all reach back to 2014. The former president asserted that his family members were victims of “the worst kind of partisan politics” in his statement announcing the pardon.
Trump considered preemptively pardoning his children during his last term, but opted not to.
“It concerns me, in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice,” Biden said during a December 2020 CNN interview._
Featured Image Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Chris Cillizza
