Barack Obama’s former chief strategist said that Joe Biden ended his presidency as badly as anyone ever has with his last-minute decision to pardon several family members.
The announcement came about 15 minutes before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. The statement was sent out as Biden and Trump stood in the Capitol rotunda, waiting for the president-elect to take the oath of office.
Biden issued pre-emptive pardons to James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden.
David Axelrod, the mastermind behind Biden’s boss Barack Obama’s rise to power, slammed the pardons as ‘egregious’ while speaking on the Hacks on Tap podcast.
Axelrod had special contempt for the pardons being announced just minutes before Trump took office.
‘I mean, man up! You know what I mean? Man up, and if you’re gonna do it, do it, but don’t do it literally as you have one foot out the door so you don’t have to explain it or be accountable for it, he said.
The CNN commentator then explained what about the pardons made them backfire on his former boss.
‘And what they did was they gave Trump a gift because it fuzzied up the story, the J6 story for him, and you heard him last night,’ he said.
Barack Obama’s former chief strategist David Axelrod said that Joe Biden ended his presidency as badly as anyone ever has with his last-minute decision to pardon several family members
The announcement came about 15 minutes before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. The statement was sent out as Biden and Trump stood in the Capitol rotunda, waiting for the president-elect to take the oath of office
The strategist said that Trump’s pardons of those arrested on January 6, 2021 were also ‘egregious’ but that Biden had given Trump the pretense for it.
Axelrod then asked: ‘Could you end a presidency as badly as he has? I mean, Trump did.’
He wasn’t the only Obama-world resident to hit out at Biden, as Pod Save America host and former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor went on Fox News to hit out at Biden.
‘I think Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his family sends a terrible message to the world. I think the presidential pardon power is far too expansive,’ he said.
He suggested Congress come together and pass an amendment to the Constitution that bans pardons for family members and staff.
Vietor also couldn’t let go of January 6, however, adding: ‘But I also think it sends a terrible message to pardon people who beat the crap out of police officers on live TV.’
In a statement, Biden argued that the pardons did not incriminate his family members.
‘The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,’ Biden said in his last act as president.
David Axelrod , the mastermind behind Biden’s boss Barack Obama’s rise to power, slammed the pardons as ‘egregious’ while speaking on the Hacks on Tap podcast
Axelrod wasn’t the only Obama-world resident to hit out at Biden, as Pod Save America host and former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor went on Fox News to hit out at Biden
His brother James Biden had been pulled into House Republicans’ impeachment investigation of Joe, which ultimately went nowhere.
However, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer had asked Trump’s Justice Department to investigate and prosecute James for allegedly making false statements to Congress.
Biden also pardoned James’ wife, Sara; his sister, Valerie; her husband, John; and his younger brother, Francis Biden.
The pardons were sweeping, covering all of their ‘nonviolent’ actions dating back to 2014.
Biden said his family was subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.’
‘Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,’ he said.
Comer said the pardons prove the family is corrupt.
‘President Biden’s preemptive pardons for the Biden Crime Family serve as a confession of their corruption as they sold out the American people to enrich themselves. Our investigation revealed that at least ten members of the Biden Crime Family and their associates raked in over $30 million by selling Joe Biden’s influence to corrupt foreign entities and individuals in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan,’ he said in a statement.
‘President Biden abused his public office to create a slush fund for his family. President Biden will go down as the most corrupt president in U.S. history, and our investigation will be remembered as one of the most successful ever conducted by Congress.’
In December, Biden pardoned his son Hunter after vowing not to. Hunter was facing sentencing in two criminal cases late last year.
The only family members missing from Monday’s list was wife Jill and daughter Ashley.
Earlier Monday Biden issued pre-emptive pardons from General Mike Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Rep. Liz Cheney and other lawmakers who investigated the January 6th riot in the Capitol.
