Biden, Who Just Issued a Host of Preemptive Pardons, Vowed in 2020 His Administration Wouldn’t Operate That Way
Screenshot via CNN.
On Monday morning, President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned a list of people believed to be at risk for political persecution by his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, but in 2020 he was singing a very different tune on the topic.
In the final hours of his presidency, Biden released a statement announcing the pardons for his former Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, “the members and staff of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” which would include chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), and former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), and “the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee,” like former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn.
“Our nation relies on dedicated, selfless public servants every day. They are the lifeblood of our democracy,” said Biden in the statement. “Yet alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties. In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions…These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”
Biden held a different view on preemptive pardons four years ago, as highlighted by CNN senior politics reporter Andrew Kaczynski.
Biden was asked about the issue in an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper in early December 2020, after Biden had defeated Trump but before he was sworn into office — and before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters attempting to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College votes.
From CNN’s transcript:
TAPPER: President Trump is reportedly considering a wave of preemptive pardons for his adult children and for Rudy Giuliani.
He’s also floated the idea in private conversations, according to our reporting, of possibly pardoning himself, which he insists he has the power to do, though that has never been litigated.
Does this concern you, all these preemptive pardons?
BIDEN: Well, it’s — 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.
But, look, our Justice Department is going to operate independently on those issues, that — how to respond to any of that. I’m not going to be telling them what they have to do and don’t have to do. I’m not going to be saying, go prosecute A, B, or C. I’m not going to be telling them.
That’s not the role — it’s not my Justice Department. It’s the people’s Justice Department.
So, the person or persons I pick to run that department are going to be people who are going to have the independent capacity to decide who gets prosecuted and who doesn’t.
Now, in terms of the pardons, you’re not going to see, in our administration, that kind of approach to pardons, nor are you going to see in our administration the approach to making policy by tweets.
It’s just going to be a totally different way in which we approach the justice system.
