CNN’s Jake Tapper Tells Maggie Haberman Maybe Biden Secretly Pardoned Himself Amid Trump Retribution Threats

CNN anchor Jake Tapper told New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman that for all anyone knows, President Joe Biden secretly pardoned himself amid President Donald Trump’s threats of retribution.

In an interview on Fox News Channel’s Hannity, Trump hinted that former President Joe Biden should be targeted, noting “he didn’t give himself a pardon” and repeatedly suggesting to Sean Hannity that an investigation into Biden and others is warranted.

On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Haberman joined Tapper to discuss the first week of Trump’s second term, including his long-promised threats of retribution.

After playing a bit of that Hannity interview, Haberman noted that the Supreme Court immunity decision might not apply to Biden, and Tapper said that could be a moot point:

TAPPER: President Trump was also asked about these last minute pardons by his predecessor, Joe Biden, and he had this note. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is he didn’t give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So I don’t know that he needed to, Mr. Biden, given the fact that there was this expansive immunity ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court about Trump that now applies to Biden.

[16:40:10]

But do you think Trump’s Department of Justice will investigate Biden?

HABERMAN: It remains — again, remains to be seen, Jake. I will say that, you know, Trump is not the only person who has expressed a lot of outrage about some of those preemptive pardons, especially the ones for President Biden’s own family members. You know, preemptive pardons, not what happened with Hunter Biden. A lot of former Biden officials have been pretty surprised by it from folks I’ve been talking to.

But Trump seemed to be unless I was misunderstanding him, talking about activities that were taken before Biden was in office. You are correct. Biden has the same broad protection from the Supreme Court for official acts as president that President Trump now has that other presidents going forward will have, although that may be challenged going forward, depending on the presidency.

He seemed to be referring to moneymaking efforts by the Biden family prior to the presidency, and we’ll see whether that turns into an investigation of some kind.

TAPPER: Yeah, the influence peddling by Hunter and James and others. And although it is possible, we don’t know, but it is always possible for a president to pardon somebody and not announce it.

HABERMAN: That’s true. That’s true. TAPPER: I mean, so its possible Joe Biden pardoned himself and we

just don’t know about it. Who knows? Joe Biden said a lot of precedents on his way out the door.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.