Jeffrey Toobin Says Biden, Trump Reveal True Colors With Presidential Pardons

TMZ

Jeffrey Toobin says Joe Biden tarnished his legacy by pardoning his son, and Donald Trump cemented one of the knocks against him with his own slew of presidential pardons.

Transcript

00:00If you look at the Constitution as a whole, one of the main ideas is checks and balances,

00:07is that the branches of government are meant to interact with each other.

00:14But the pardons are an exception, that it is the part of the Constitution that comes

00:20most directly from the powers of the kings of England.

00:25And there is no check or balance.

00:28It is the Congress can't overturn a pardon, the courts can't overturn a pardon.

00:33And as a result, if you look over the broad span of history, I think presidents reveal

00:39their characters most directly in pardons, because they are sort of the purest essence

00:46of what a president can do.

00:49And that's often not a very pretty picture.

00:52So let's talk about two people, Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

00:56Joe Biden pardoned his son, notably, when he said he wouldn't.

01:01And Donald Trump has pardoned a slew of people, probably for various reasons.

01:08What does it reveal about both of them?

01:09Well, it reveals so much.

01:14With Biden, he has this obsession with his own family.

01:21And you know, I think you can go back to the death of his first wife and and and, you

01:26know, he has this, you know, just almost physical desire to protect them.

01:32In fact, one theory, which I find believable, his physical and mental decline, which was

01:38so pronounced in his last year as president, you can date it from the trial of his son

01:44in Delaware, that that it was so emotionally wrenching for him.

01:49And not only did he go back on his word about not pardoning his son, but I mean, he sent

01:55a terrible message, I think, with with that pardon, because, you know, whatever you think

02:01of Hunter Biden, he committed the crimes that he was convicted of.

02:06You know, he did, you know, commit that gun crime in Delaware.

02:09He did cheat on his taxes in California.

02:12And you know, my view is, you know, maybe he was treated more harshly than some other

02:17people.

02:18And that's true of a lot of people in the in the criminal justice system.

02:22But their fathers aren't president of the United States.

02:25And I thought by singling him out, much less than, you know, going back on your word, he

02:31really damaged his legacy as president.

02:34OK, so Trump has pardoned his father in law.

02:37He has his son's father in law, his daughter, his daughter's father in law rather.

02:44He has pardoned Blagojevich.

02:46He has pardoned January 6th convicts.

02:50What does it say about Trump?

02:51Well, I think to see what it says about Trump, you have to go back to the first term and

02:56remember what he did at the end of at the end of of his first term when he pardoned

03:04a scad of people, many of whom were completely undeserving.

03:08You know, he settled his score with Robert Mueller by pardoning everyone Mueller had

03:14prosecuted.

03:15Roger Stone, among others.

03:18Then, you know, he pardoned Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner's father, you know, who was

03:24who was convicted in an egregious scam.

03:27He pardoned a bunch of Republican congressmen, former congressmen who had engaged in grotesque

03:34bribery and crimes.

03:36And I think the word about Trump and pardons is a word that really sums up his his worldview,

03:43which is transactional.

03:45You know, you hurt me.

03:46I'm going to hurt you.

03:48You help me.

03:49I'm going to help you.

03:50And that's been the motive for all these pardons, most dramatically with the January 6th pardons,

03:57because, you know, he was a January 6th defendant to remember not the same set of cases.

04:03But he was accused of, you know, trying to get the election overturned through the use

04:08of fake fake electors, which put him on the same team as those 1500 he pardoned.

04:15And that's why he pardoned them, even the most violent among them.

04:19So I suspect that the transactional nature of his pardons will continue throughout the

04:24second term.

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