S.C. Congressman Jim Clyburn says Biden should pardon Trump
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS/AP) - U.S. Congressman James “Jim” Clyburn, D-S.C., ed the MSNBC’s The Saturday Show with Jonathan Capehart to discuss the president pardoning his son.
Clyburn, longtime fixture in the U.S. Congress and a Democratic powerhouse, has been the U.S. representative for the Sixth District since his initial election in 1992. He said he encouraged President Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter Biden weeks before his scheduled sentencing on gun and tax convictions.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California.
The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.
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“We are in a period of time that no one thought we would be in,” Clyburn said he told Biden.
“Then I said to him, ‘You are a dad. You have a son that was targeted and everyone knows that. You have an obligation to protect your son,’” he said.
Clyburn said Joe Biden was “reticent” to pardon his son, but Clyburn was persistent that he should give Hunter Biden clemency.
MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart asked Clyburn: “Do you think Joe Biden should pardon Donald Trump? And if so, why?”
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Clyburn responds: “Yes I do think so. And I think he should pardon all of those people that have been accused and have been targeted so we can clean the slate and have an air of possibilities for the future.”
“If we keep digging up things of the past, I’m not too sure the country would not lose its way,” Clyburn said.
Capehart asked why Trump would need a pardon from Biden if the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have some legal immunities from criminal prosecution.
“He doesn’t want to see us keep digging into the past,” Clyburn said about Biden.
Capehart said in response, “This might be the one and only time we will ever disagree on a subject.”
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the president is weighing whether to issue sweeping pardons for officials and allies who the White House fears could be unjustly targeted by President-elect Donald Trump’s istration.
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