During a recent exchange, CNN anchor Jake Tapper raised an intriguing possibility by suggesting that President Joe Biden might have pardoned himself without making it public knowledge. This moment shed light on CNN’s stance towards the incoming Trump administration.
Tapper’s remark came while he was in conversation with Maggie Haberman, a correspondent for The New York Times who has been critical of Trump on numerous occasions. They were deliberating on the president’s threats of seeking revenge against his political adversaries.
Specifically, Tapper highlighted a clip from Trump’s interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, where Trump commented, ‘the sad thing is (Biden) didn’t give himself a pardon.’ This statement raised eyebrows and fueled speculation about potential behind-the-scenes actions by Biden.
Trump suggested that he may push for an investigation into Biden because ‘it all had to do with him’, leading Tapper to ask Haberman: ‘Do you think Trump’s Department of Justice will investigate Biden?’
Haberman said it ‘remains to be seen’, adding: ‘You know, Trump is not the only person who has expressed a lot of outrage about some of those preemptive pardons, especially the ones for President Biden’s own family members.’
Tapper went on to speculate that ‘it is always possible for a president to pardon somebody and not announce it’, meaning Biden may have ‘pardoned himself and we just don’t know about it.’
As he made the suggestion, Tapper acknowledged that the issue may be a moot point thanks to the Republican controlled Supreme Court decision last year granting immunity to official presidential acts.
‘So I don’t know that he needed to, Mr. Biden, given the fact that there was this expansive immunity ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court about Trump that now applies to Biden,’ he said.
The issue of ‘secret’ presidential pardons came under the spotlight four years ago after Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden, as he also issued a number of pardons to allies – but notably not to himself or any family members.
It was speculated at the time that Trump could have issued secret pardons, which are technically possible but have never been documented in US history.
The clause in the constitution that grants presidential pardoning powers does not explicitly prevent them from being secret.
However, there is no indication that neither Trump nor Biden ever issued secret pardons, with some constitutional scholars arguing that the public nature of a pardon is what makes them legally valid.
At the end of Biden’s term, it was revealed he set the record for the most pardons and sentence commutations in a single presidential term, except for Jimmy Carter’s pardons for Vietnam draft dodgers in 1977.
Many of Biden’s pardons sparked outrage, particularly his sweeping pardon for his son Hunter despite previously denying he had plans to do so many times.
And in one of his last acts in the White House, Biden also issued preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and all nine members of the January 6 Committee, including frequent Trump nemesis Liz Cheney.
In total, the 82-year-old issued 8,064 pardons during his tenure, with 6,500 of those coming by way of a sweeping pardon for those convicted of marijuana possession.
Outside of recently deceased former President Carter, whose draft dodging pardons impacted over 200,000 individuals – Biden has issued the most.
In Saturday’s interview with CNN’s Tapper, Haberman noted that Biden’s pardon for his son Hunter stunned even liberals in Washington.
‘A lot of former Biden officials have been pretty surprised by it from folks I’ve been talking to,’ she said.
Haberman added that although Biden has presidential immunity for official acts he took in the White House, Trump’s comments to Hannity earlier this week ‘seemed to be talking about activities that were taken before Biden was in office.’
‘He seemed to be referring to moneymaking efforts by the Biden family prior to the presidency, and we’ll see whether that turns into an investigation of some kind,’ she said.
