Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) argued President Joe Biden issuing a pardon to both his son, Hunter Biden, and President-elect Donald Trump would be the “appropriate” thing to do, underscoring a need to prevent the nation’s justice system from becoming weaponized.
Fetterman was asked about the bipartisan division the president’s pardon of his son has created, to which he argued it was “undeniable” how Hunter Biden’s legal battle was “politically motivated.” However, he also stated the same could be said about Trump’s conviction in New York, in which the president-elect was found guilty in a 34-count criminal case in May.
“And in both cases, I think a pardon is appropriate, and I really think, collectively, America’s confidence in these kinds of institutions has been damaged by these kinds of cases, and we cannot allow these kinds of institutions to be weaponized against our political opponents,” Fetterman said on ABC News’s The View. “And it’s very clear both trials were politically motivated and weaponized on the other side.”
Fetterman noted how some of his fellow Democrats were “gleeful” over Trump’s conviction, and he argued the charges Trump and Hunter Biden faced would have never been brought unless one side “realized that they could weaponize” the nation’s legal system.
Trump’s lawyers have filed a 72-page motion to dismiss his conviction in New York, arguing the president’s pardon undermines the fairness of Trump’s prosecution. Biden argued that his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” and that “raw politics has infected this process,” with Trump’s lawyers claiming the president’s remarks apply equally to Trump’s New York case.
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On Monday, NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo pitched the idea of Biden pardoning Trump following his massive pardon of his son, to which sports journalist Stephen A. Smith responded, “That’s exactly what I would do.” Smith argued that the Democratic Party needs to recognize it “lost the election” and that it is now “time to move forward.”
Smith backed up his argument by citing the pardon then-President Gerald Ford issued to former President Richard Nixon in 1974 for “all offenses against the United States” he committed or may have committed during his presidency. This pardon, Smith argued, was granted by Ford because the president sought to move on from the controversy of the Nixon presidency “for the good of the country.”
