Democratic Party strategist Chuck Rocha said Tuesday on CNN that former president Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons of family members could significantly damage the party’s chances in critical congressional races.
During an appearance on “The Lead With Jake Tapper,” Rocha said that political fallout could come as the Democratic Party tries to maintain its hold on 14 congressional districts previously won by Trump. Rocha also said that after President Donald Trump pardoned Jan. 6 rioters, Democrats cannot focus on this issue because Republicans can counter by pointing out Biden’s pardons of his own family.
“There‘s 14 congressional districts that Trump won that Democratic congressmen sit in that are my top targets to make sure that they can get there. So I‘ll make the ad talking about what Donald Trump did and pardoning these J6 defenders, folks that beat up cops. Well, guess what they do? They just spin around and make a [TV ad] going [to say] ‘He [Biden] pardoned his whole family,’” Rocha told Jake Tapper. “Not that that‘s right or wrong or their equivalent. They‘re not. But it hurts me when I‘m trying, as a Democratic strategist, to win a congressional race. This is the real impact of that decision.”
Former Trump White House Comms Director Mike Dubke then chimed in and said that when Biden pardoned Hunter it weakened the Democrats’ stance on law and order.
“At the end of the day, you either believe in the rule of law or you don’t. And to your point, when he pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after he said he wouldn’t do it, he politicized as much as anyone else, the DOJ when he did that, and he really did it on the preemptive pardons,” Dubke said. “And I was gonna hope that you played that clip because that’s making its round in social media of you asking him that question.”
As Republicans took control of all branches of government, Rocha said there’s a shift in dynamics, likening it to “the dog who caught the car.”
“I tell you, step back because there’s gonna be a lot of news every day on this channel and other channels, and you get to actually draw a contrast on what are you doing or you’re not doing,” Rocha said.
Just before Trump was sworn in on Monday, Biden issued pardons to five family members, including his two brothers. He also extended clemency to former White House senior medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee in his final hours as president.
Biden also commuted the sentences for 2,500 individuals convicted of violent offenses, including two whose crimes resulted in the death of a police officer. During a Monday night press briefing after signing executive orders, Trump criticized Biden’s recent pardons of his family as suggesting their guilt, saying that such actions would have jeopardized his own re-election had he pardoned his family during his tenure.
Trump, meanwhile, granted full pardons to approximately 1,500 people implicated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
(Featured Image Media Credit:Screenshot/CNN)
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