Long-time Trump critic and MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance downplayed any suggested impropriety of President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden during an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday.
Vance called Biden’s use of the pardon “a power that he unquestionably has the ability to exercise.”
“Well, President Biden does have the power to do this unilaterally,” she said. “No one can overrule him. And with Hunter Biden’s sentencing coming up fast, scheduled for this week, undoubtedly this began to weigh upon him. We all lived through Donald Trump’s efforts to abuse and to twist the Justice Department. There were some skirmishes involving Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, who went to prison after he turned on Donald Trump. And there were issues about his release and whether he was treated the same way other prisoners were being treated. So, I’m sure those sorts of issues weighed heavily on President Biden.”
“But I want to underscore something Mary McCord said,” Vance continued. “Which is that this is not unleashing the floodgates on abuse of presidential power by President Biden. This is President Biden exercising a power that he unquestionably has the ability to exercise. Many presidents use the pardon power in ways that not everyone agrees with. This use, some will agree, others will find it objectionable given his prior statement that he wouldn’t use it in this way. but it’s not an abuse of power. This isn’t someone trying to interfere with the smooth transfer of power.”
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