Hakeem Jeffries Praises Trump’s Pardon of ‘Beloved’ Democrat: ‘Exactly the Right Outcome’
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) found a rare point of agreement with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, backing the president’s pardon of “beloved” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
Jeffries joined Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown on CNN’s The Situation Room shortly after Trump announced the pardon on Truth Social.
“One of the clearest examples of this was when Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to “take out” a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe,'” Trump wrote.
Cuellar was indicted in March 2024 for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign bribes. Cuellar’s wife was also indicted at the time.
“Congressman Cuellar is a beloved member of the House of Representatives, loved in his community, particularly in Laredo. I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with him down in Laredo in South Texas,” Jeffries said on Wednesday. “I look forward to that moving forward. Listen, the reality is this indictment was very thin to begin with, in my view. The charges were eventually going to be dismissed, if not at the trial court level then by the Supreme Court, as they’ve repeatedly done in instances just like this.”
Jeffries admitted he did not know what motivated Trump’s pardon (Brown noted that Cuellar represents a district Trump won), but he fully backs the outcome.
“I don’t know why the president decided to do this. I think the outcome was exactly the right outcome,” he said.
Brown asked whether Cuellar could be mulling a jump to the Republican Party. Jeffries said he does not know Cuellar’s plans for running for reelection, but he is confident the lawmaker will remain with his party.
“I think Congressman Cuellar is a highly highly valued member of the House Democratic Caucus, and I expect that he’ll continue to remain a highly valued member of the House Democratic Caucus,” he said.
Watch above via CNN.
