Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday asked a senior adviser for Donald Trump whether the president-elect would accept a pardon from President Joe Biden.
Longtime aide Jason Miller gave one super cagey answer. (Watch the video below.)
“Jason, would Donald Trump accept a pardon from Joe Biden?” Ingraham asked to begin the amusing exchange.
“At this point, I don’t know what Joe Biden is gonna pull,” Miller answered. “I think it’s nonsense. If it’s some aspect of some PR play, he might try to do it. But President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. That’s why everything is disappearing. That’s why he’s focused on actually serving for this second term here.”
Ingraham tried to cajol Miller into an actual answer.
“Wait, would President Trump say ‘no’ to a pardon, though?” she said. “Come on.”
“I’m not gonna go and put words in the president’s mouth,” Miller replied to a “shucks” by Ingraham. “Everyone sees exactly what’s going on. This is a complete media manipulation by Joe Biden.”
Trump perhaps wouldn’t require Biden’s clemency anyway. The federal cases against the president-elect for 2020 election scamming and illegally keeping classified documents have been dropped but could be refiled when he leaves office.
His legal jeopardy is receding on other fronts as well. His sentencing hearing for concealing hush money payments to a porn star was canceled and not rescheduled. And the Georgia case against him for bad-faith attempts to overturn the 2020 election has stalled and likely won’t be revived, according to experts.
But a Biden pardon could help clean Trump’s slate. The possibility of a pardon gained steam when Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who potentially faced prison time on a gun conviction and tax crimes, after repeatedly saying he would not pardon him.
Independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia called for Biden to follow suit on his predecessor ― and now successor.
“I am just saying, wipe them out,” Manchin said. “Why don’t you go ahead and pardon Donald Trump for all his charges and make it, you know, it would have gone down a lot more balanced, if you will.”
Democracy In The Balance
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