President Donald Trump weighed in on the sweeping last-minute pardons signed by former President Joe Biden and noted he found it “sad” Biden hadn’t also issued himself his own pardon.
During an exclusive interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday, Trump reflected on the past four years of the Biden administration, with Hannity pointing out Biden had promised voters during his presidential campaign in 2020, that he would never do preemptive pardons.
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Joe Biden on preemptive pardons in 2020 (which Trump never did):
— Alexandre Lores
You can’t make this up. pic.twitter.com/W330WoPaVc(@alexandre_lores) January 20, 2025
When asked about Biden’s pardons, Trump said he was “given the option” of pardoning himself and others, but he never took that opportunity because he didn’t do anything wrong.
“He [Biden] heard that I was gonna do it, I didn’t want to do it. I was given the option,” Trump said, “They said, ‘Sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?’ I said, I’m not gonna pardon anybody, we didn’t do anything wrong … We had people that suffered, incredible patriots.”
Trump noted the people who were arrested over the January 6 Capitol protests not only lost their freedom for years, but everything they had.
“We had people that suffered. You had [Steve] Bannon put in jail; you had Peter Navarro put in jail,” Trump said, “You had people that suffered, and far worse than that, they’ve lost their fortunes, they’ve lost their whatever, their nest eggs paying it to lawyers … Most of those people … they wouldn’t have even taken a pardon.”
“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.”
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Trump has been openly critical of how Biden went about pardoning his family and told reporters upon retaking the Oval Office that he “wasn’t surprised” but added they actually made Biden’s family look guilty.
“I was surprised that President Biden would go and pardon his whole family because that makes him look very guilty,” Trump told reporters, “You know, I could have pardoned my family, I could have pardoned myself, my family, I said if I do that it’s going to make me look very guilty. I don’t think I’d be sitting here, frankly. If I did that, I don’t think I would be sitting here right now. Because I would have shown them, you’re guilty.”
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Republican lawmakers have now said they will be investigating Biden’s pardons, including other controversial preemptive pardons Biden issued to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases former director Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
