Another prominent Senate Democrat is criticizing President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, and others.
During an appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) was questioned by moderator Margaret Brennan about the 39 pardons and a record 1,500 sentence commutations granted by Biden this week.
“Are you comfortable with some of these decisions?” Brennan asked.
“No,” Klobuchar said bluntly, nothing further that she specifically “didn’t agree with the pardon of the president’s son.”
“We should have some kind of an outside board that governors have,” Klobuchar said. “Governors have the ability to give mercy to people after years have gone by, but a lot of them have boards that make recommendations and other things, instead of people just doing it in the middle of the night and people in the White House. This makes no sense to me.”
The Minnesota Democrat further stated that while she believes some recipients of clemency are deserving, there are several individuals on the list of over 1,500 that perplex her.
“I have no doubt there were some righteous pardons in this group,” Klobuchar said. “Okay, let’s say that. Now I believe that there were. But there were a number that I think make no sense at all.”
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Others also blasted the outgoing president for his mass pardon of what one outlet described as “a bunch of Democrat criminals.”
“Last week, President Joe Biden made history — and not in a good way — by granting clemency on an unprecedented scale, commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals and issuing 39 pardons in a single day. This marks the largest one-day act of clemency in modern history, surpassing the previous record set by President Barack Obama, who issued 330 commutations during his final days in office,” PJ Media’s Matt Margolis wrote.
“It should come as no surprise that among the nearly 1,500 individuals whose sentences Biden commuted last week were at least three Democratic politicians and several public officials, including a disgraced former judge infamous for orchestrating a scheme that sent thousands of children to jail in exchange for kickbacks,” he added. Even Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) criticized that particular decision, calling it “absolutely wrong” and accusing the president of causing “a lot of pain” in his state over the former Pennsylvania judge’s clemency.
Biden granted clemency to several high-profile Democrats convicted of serious crimes, including former Democratic New York State Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., who was sentenced to 14 years for bribery and fraud, and former Democratic Florida state senate candidate Anis Blemur, who scammed South Florida’s Haitian community out of $1.6 million, Margolis noted.
Other recipients included former Democratic Ohio Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, convicted of accepting bribes over a decade, and former Dixon, Ill., Comptroller Rita Crundwell, who embezzled $53.7 million from her city. Obama had previously denied clemency to Dimora, he wrote.
Biden defended his decisions, claiming that many of those who were granted pardons or clemency were serving long sentences that “would have been lower if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices.”
He also claimed that some of the individuals in question, who were put into home confinement during the COVID pandemic, “have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance.”
Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump are now calling for pardons for individuals convicted in connection with the violent January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, citing Joe Biden’s pardons and acts of clemency, especially regarding his son.
Biden’s decision regarding Hunter — a nearly unprecedented pardon that covered an 11-year span beginning in 2014 — reversed his earlier public pledge not to intervene and spared the first son from a potential prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions.
That led Trump supporters to take to social media, urging him to use his presidential powers to pardon individuals convicted of federal crimes related to the Capitol riot once he returns to the White House in January.
Trump also responded to the pardon.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump wrote. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
