In a preview of his upcoming interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, former President Donald Trump commented on Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons before leaving office. Hannity highlighted that Biden had previously stated he would never issue preemptive pardons but later pardoned his siblings and their spouses shortly before his departure from the White House.
Trump revealed that he had been offered the option to pardon himself and others during his presidency but declined. “I said, ‘I’m not going to pardon anybody. We didn’t do anything wrong.’ But we had incredible patriots who suffered—people like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were jailed, others lost their fortunes, their nest eggs, paying lawyers. And people advised me to pardon them, but I didn’t, because most of them wouldn’t have even accepted it,” Trump explained.
Trump went on to criticize Biden for “giving everyone pardons” while pointing out that Biden chose not to pardon himself. “The funny, or maybe sad, thing is he didn’t give himself a pardon, and it all had to do with him,” Trump said.
The full interview with Trump is set to air on Wednesday evening, January 22.
As previously reported, Biden issued preemptive pardons to his brother James Biden and other relatives, including Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden, on January 20. In a statement, Biden cited “unrelenting attacks and threats” against his family, driven by partisan motives, as the reason for his decision.
Last year, Biden also pardoned his son Hunter for federal tax and gun charges, explaining that the justice system had been influenced by politics, leading to a miscarriage of justice. He defended the decision, stating that no reasonable person could conclude Hunter was prosecuted for any reason other than being his son.
