On Sunday, CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Pérez said that President Joe Biden is arguing that “there are political problems with the prosecutions that are being brought by his own Justice Department” to justify his pardon of his son, Hunter, which sounds like what President-Elect Donald Trump would say and “to see President Biden sort of go to the same territory is kind of a remarkable turn to watch.”
Pérez said the pardon “is something that a lot of us were anticipating. We were waiting for it, even despite the fact that the President has said repeatedly that he was not planning to give his son a pardon, would not commute his sentences.”
He added, “I think it’s really remarkable to sort of step back and just read some of what President Biden is saying in here. Keep in mind, he took office in 2021, promising to sort of restore the institutions and try to restore faith in those institutions, including the system of justice, obviously, the Justice Department, those are among the big priorities with him. That’s why he chose Merrick Garland, a former judge, to be attorney general. And then, if you look now, where we are, what the president of the United States is saying is that, essentially, there are problems, there are political problems with the prosecutions that are being brought by his own Justice Department. And I think that’s going to be a very, very tough pill for people to swallow on this issue, because, obviously, it is a thing that we keep hearing from Donald Trump. And it’s the thing that animates the Trump team over the next four years. You’re already hearing from them that they want to destroy some of those institutions that they believe are stacked against them. And so, to see President Biden sort of go to the same territory is kind of a remarkable turn to watch.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
