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Joe Biden Pardons Hunter Political Shocker · Gil I Am

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: The Biden Justice Department has been politicized. That's this message.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: The message this morning from no not just Donald Trump,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: but from President Joe Biden himself. The President issuing a
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: full and unconditional pardon to his son Hunter after repeating, insistently,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: repeatedly insisting in public that he wouldn't do it, and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to defend his decision, the President adopted an argument that
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: could have come straight out of Donald Trump's playbook, blame
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: your political opponents and claim unfair persecution. President Biden said
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: this quote, the charges in his cases came about only
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to attack me and oppose my election, the president, adding quote,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: no reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: out only because he is my son, and that is wrong.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: End quote. President pardoning his son not just for the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: gun crimes for which he was convicted, and not just
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: for the tax crimes for which he pled guilty. Instead,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Biden gave his son an extraordinarily sweeping pardon for any
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and all crimes he committed, may have committed, or even
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: merely been involved in at any point in the last
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: ten years, that broad language unlike any in recent history,
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  Speaker 1: and reminiscent only of President Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Nixon for quote all offenses against the United States end
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: quote that the former president had or may have committed
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: during his entire presidency. Trying to explain his decision to Americans,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: President Biden made a personal appeal. He said this quote.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I hope Americans will understand why a father and a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: president would come to this decision, he said last night.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Understand Americans might, though they'll have to be forgiven for
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: thinking that all of this was off the table.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Is there any possibility that the president would end up
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: pardoning his son?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I just said no. I just answered with.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Or commute his son if he's convicted.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: So I've answered this question before. It was asked of me,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: not too long ago, a couple of weeks ago, and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I was very clear, and I said, no, you said
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: before the president would not pardon his son. Is that
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: still the case, nothing has changed, That is still the case.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, I said, I advide by the jury decision, and
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I will do that, and I will not partner him I.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Could speak for the president, uh, and he said he
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: would not pardon his son.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: Does the president have any intention of pardoning him?
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: We've been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: which is now, well it stood until last night. Joining
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: us now selamos Moson. Senior Washington correspondent for Bloomberg is
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Ac Devarisian and senior reporter Megan Hayes, former director of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: message planning for the Biden White House and brought Todd
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Republicans rare to just and see it in political commentator.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to all of you. Megan Hayes, Look you you
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: know many of our viewers have gotten to know you,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: but you really do know this family. You worked inside
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: this White House for a very long time. Can you
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: help us understand how they got to this decision because
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I have to say I've talked to some people who
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: thought the President wouldn't get there because he was concerned
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: about his legacy. Obviously something really changed.
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm a little surprised. I didn't actually think he'd
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: get there till much later, in the last couple of
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: months of his term. But I do think with some
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: of the nominations that Trump has put up, I think
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: it probably caused a little bit of worry for him.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: But also I think people have to remember the President
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: has lost two children already and he does not need
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: to lose another one to more political you know, which
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: hunts that he did. The President's calling them, he doesn't
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: he worries about the Hunter going to jail there. I mean,
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: there's a lot of things wrapped up in this, but
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: I think at the end of the day, the President
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: made a decision as a father to keep his son
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: out of jail and out of harm's way moving forward.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You just to pick up on something you said at
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the top of your answer, you think the selection, for example,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: of Cash Patel played into this decision.
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: I think that some of these nominations that Trump has
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: been putting forward and leaving this in the hands of
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: other folks, I think is worrisome to the president. I
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: mean President Trumps and Cash Pttel have said they're going
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: to go after their political enemies. They're going after retribution.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: I think that that Hunter Biden has been seen as
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: the person that they've gone after many times, and I
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: don't think the President's going to leave that to chance
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  Speaker 5: when he leaves office. He again does not want to
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: lose another son. He's lost two children already, and he
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: does not want this to go on any further once
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  Speaker 5: he leaves office.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Isaac Deber, what's your reporting kind of behind the scenes
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: on you know, how this came to be. But also,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, we have seen some Democratic reaction already criticizing
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the president from this for this. I mean, we saw
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  Speaker 1: a tweet from the Colorado governor, the Democrat, Jared poli
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: is saying it's bad President President that could be abused
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: by later presidents. Congressman Greg Stanton said, I respect President Biden,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: but I think he got this one wrong. And then
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Joe Walsh, who is a former congressman, Republican congressman who's
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: become a Trump critic, he was on MSNBC. He put
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: it this way, let's play it because it's kind of
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: a succinct way to look at it.
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: Take a look so the next time any of us
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: complain about anything Trump does, this pardon is just deflating.
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  Speaker 6: Nobody's above the law. We've been screaming, Well, Joe Biden
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: just made clear his son Hunter is above the law.
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: Donald Trump lies every time he opens his mouth. We've
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: been screaming Joe Biden repeatedly lied about this, the politicization
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: of the justice system. Donald Trump and his people have
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: been screaming, well, that's exactly what Biden said here.
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  Speaker 1: Does he have a point? And what do you hearing
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  Speaker 1: from other Democrats.
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  Speaker 2: This is the kind of thing that does breed cynicism
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: in people. And it's that cynicism that in part Donald
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Trump plays off of and making the moves that he
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: does when he says, look, it's all rigged against everybody.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: The Justice Department is politicized, right, and now Joe Biden
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: has said that his Justice Department under his administration was
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: what was pursuing these cases, was what had gotten the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: guilty verdict in the gun case.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And.
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  Speaker 2: We were waiting for the sentencing in this tax case.
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  Speaker 2: That's a that's an issue for Joe Biden to face
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  Speaker 2: now when he has put himself forward not just as
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: an opposition to Trump, but as someone who is standing
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: on principle and on norms and on keeping in that way,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I do think that it's important we can hold multiple
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: thoughts in our heads at the same time, right that
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump will perhaps use this as certainly allies will
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: use this as justification or something to point to when
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: he does things, whether it's pardoning people who are involved
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: in the January sixth riot or other things. But it's
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: not like Donald Trump wasn't going to do some of
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: those things anyway, right, and so, but it does muddy
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: all the waters of people who wanted to see Biden
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: if nothing else is somebody who was standing up for
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: all of these ideals that he was talking about for
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: the last bunch of years.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Fair, Although we should also acknowledge, say how that
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: this is not the first president to pardon someone who
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: he is related to in some way, including I mean
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: with Donald Trump, it was an in law, but you
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  Speaker 1: know someone in his family nonetheless, and in law.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Charles Kushner, Jared's father, who he is just nominated to
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: be his ambassador to France. I would have to agree
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: that there is a little bit of a precedent being
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: set that now when Democrats are sort of trying to
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: figure out where do they go from here after having
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: lost so badly in the presidential elections and down ballot races,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: they're trying to rebuild the party and they're left with
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: an aged president leaving former head of the Democratic Party
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: after being president and now he's done this. It's going
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: to be really hard in the next two years as
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Democrats are turning to position themselves heading into midterms to
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: also serve as bullwarks against some of Trump's plans, especially
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: now that we've heard about his FBI domination.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Brad Todd, you and I have spent We saw each
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: other on Sunday. We were talking about kind of the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: ways in which Republicans obviously feel like the Department of
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Justice has been weaponized against them in political ways. Do
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: you buy I mean, Joe Biden is basically saying, look,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: this he would never have been prosecuted if he wasn't
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  Speaker 1: my son, and that this is political as well. Do
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: you buy that?
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  Speaker 4: There's no question a lot of Justice Department prosecution as
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: a results of the fact that the DJ decides they
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: can get press out of them. They are sensitive to
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: media pressure, they're sensitive to political pressure. Joe Biden and
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump aronown saying the same thing, And I think
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: that makes the case for why the DJ has to
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: be cleaned up. New ethos of operation has to happen there.
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  Speaker 4: But I think one thing about this pardon that's striking
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: to me is that it's not for the gun and
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  Speaker 4: the tax charge. This is for everything he did in
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  Speaker 4: the last eleven years. Coincidentally, that's when he went on
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: the board of Barisma, the Ukrainian gas company. I think
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: that there's going to be a lot more investigation into
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: what Hunter Biden's dealings were with Barisma, And now that
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  Speaker 4: he's been pardoned, he doesn't need to Fifth Amendment. He
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: can tell us everything. He can tell us everything about
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  Speaker 4: his co conspirators, he can tell us everything about other
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: people who did business with him. A lot more is
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: now on the table, and so I think Joe Biden
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: in overreaching here with an eleven year pardon. He may
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: have opened more fodder for investigation from the.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: House, but that's the point in the mind of the president.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: It seems that there was this fear that there would
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: be vindictive retribution prosecutions of Hunter Biden under a Trump
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: run Justice Department. And look, it is definitely the case
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: that some of the attention to Hunter Biden is because
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: of Joe Biden. I remember still being in South Carolina
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the day after the South Carolina primary that Joe Biden
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: won in twenty twenty, when he turned his campaign around
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden Senator Ron Johnson was asked
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: for information about Barisma. So but that's the way it goes.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: It's also the case that Hunter Biden clearly, over the
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: course of his career, benefited from being Joe Biden's son.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: Just just watch more people will be pardoned by this
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: this administration who dealt with Hunter Biden's