Karoline Leavitt Backpedals on Trump Declaration Biden Pardons Are ‘Void’: Just ‘Begging the Question’
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt backpedaled on Monday afternoon when asked about President Donald Trump’s declaration that a number of pardons handed out by his predecessor, Joe Biden, are “VOID.”
Just after midnight on Monday morning, Trump fired off a Truth Social post that read:
The “Pardons” that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Leavitt about Trump’s dubious claim during Monday’s press briefing, causing the spokeswoman to suggest that Trump was simply “begging the question”:
COLLINS: I have two questions for you — one on the flights — but first on the president’s post overnight saying that he is, that the pardons that were issued by President Biden preemptively to members of the January 6th Committee, that they’re now null and void. Have attorneys here at the White House told President Trump that he has the legal authority to undo a pardon simply because it was signed by autopen, as he said?
LEAVITT: The president was begging the question that I think a lot of journalists in this room should be asking, about whether or not the former president of the United States, who I think we can all finally agree was cognitively impaired. I know it took people some time to finally admit that, but we all know that to be true, as evidenced by his disastrous debate performance against President Trump during the campaign. I digress on that, but the president [Trump] was raising the point that did the president [Biden] even know about these pardons? Was his legal signature used without his consent or knowledge? And that’s not just the president or me raising those questions, Kaitlan. According to The New York Post, there are Biden officials from the previous White House who raised those questions and wondered if the president was even consulted about his legally binding signature being signed onto documents. And so I think it’s a question that everybody in this room should be looking into because certainly that would propose perhaps criminal or illegal behavior if staff members were signing the President of the United States’ autograph without his consent.
COLLINS: But President Biden is on the record talking about issuing preemptive pardons to these people.
LEAVITT: But was he aware of his signature being used on every single pardon? That’s a question you should ask the Biden White House.
COLLINS: Is there any evidence on that — that he wasn’t aware of it?
LEAVITT: You’re a reporter, you should find out.
Watch above via Fox News.
