Biden’s last-minute pardon slammed by CNN panel as ‘tarnishing his legacy’

CNN reporters and hosts said Monday that President Biden’s decision to pardon members of his family in the waning minutes of his administration has tarnished his name and “is a blot on his history.”

“Well, as it turns out, Anderson, there’s another promise that’s been broken. That’s exactly how he decided to approach the justice department. This is a decision that will raise a lot of shocking questions about the legal process that this is now. And it would be one of the last acts for President Biden as president-elect. ,” CNN’s MJ Lee said, noting that Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in December 2020 that the US would not see a pardon in advance of his administration, and that his way of handling the justice system would be completely different from that of President Trump.

Biden’s pardon applies to James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens and Francis Biden, the White House announced during Trump’s inauguration. The former president has now said his family may face a “politically motivated” investigation after leaving office.

Lee previously said in his statement that this was another way the former president tarnished his legacy.

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CNN commentator and “The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued during an interview that the pardon of family members was “far worse” than her last-minute pardon of Liz Cheney, Gen. Mark Milley and Anthony Fauci.

“It’s not fair,” said CNN host John King. “If you are going to do it, have the courage to make it clear and explain to the American people. It is a stain on his history to do this. We can argue about it, right? It is necessary, did Donald Trump promise to return, if you are the President of the United States who said that the curse of Donald Trump was that he did not respect democracy and he did not respect manners, dare to look the situation in the eyes of the American people and explain what you are doing.”

Former Obama aide David Axelrod said the timing of the pardon looked suspicious.

“The truth is that Trump has been saying this for a long time. That doesn’t explain why in the last 10 minutes of his presidency he issued that release, it just makes everything look bad,” Axelrod said.

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David Axelrod speaks during CNN’s Jan. 20, 2025. (Screenshot/CNN)

In December 2020, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Biden if he was worried about rumors that Trump, who had just defeated him, would release a wave of pardons for some people close to him.

“Well, it worries me that it sets an example that the whole world considers us as a nation of laws and justice,” he said at the time.

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“You will not see in our administration a pardon,” Biden added. “And you’re not going to see in our administration the way we make policy with tweets. You know, it’s going to be a completely different way of looking at the justice system.”

Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.