Joe Manchin, the outgoing Democratic Senator from West Virginia best known for frequently breaking with his party in order to stymie passage of popular legislation, has some final advice for Joe Biden following the pardon of his son, Hunter Biden: Why not also pardon someone who attempted a coup?
Manchin told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday that while he sympathizes with the pardoning, he thinks Biden could have made it “more balanced” if he also pardoned Donald Trump.
“As a father, I don’t know a father that wouldn’t have done the same thing. What I would have done differently,” Manchin said, “my recommendations to the counsel would have been, ‘why don’t you go ahead and pardon Donald Trump for all his charges and make it, you know, it’d have gone down a lot more balanced, if you will. I’m just saying, wipe them out.”
Manchin added that the pardon also “makes it difficult” to assess Biden’s legacy.
Watch the clip below:
Biden announced on Sunday that we was pardoning Hunter for any crimes committed between 2014 and Dec. 1, 2024. Among other reasons, Biden wrote, “”No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion Hunter was singled out because he’s my son — and that is wrong.” Read more here.
The move has of course been criticized by members of the press and by certain centrist elements within the Democratic Party, as well as by Donald Trump and Republicans.
Meanwhile, left out of Manchin’s comment — as well as as from the complaints from other offended parties — is any mention of the dozens of pardons Donald Trump issued during his time as president, such as his last-minute pardons of multiple criminally convicted associated including Roger Stone and Paul Manafort. Manchin also did not mention Trump’s massive pardon blitz the day before he left office, which included Steve Bannon and multiple other people whose crimes ranged from operating as unregistered foreign agents to fraud.
Manchin did not also note that the majority of charges against Trump stem from literal attempts to overthrow the government after losing the 2020 election.
As for whether Biden should take Manchin’s advice, it’s worth noting that it comes almost 3 years exactly after he broke several explicit promises and practically single-handedly killed Biden’s signature “Build Back Better” bill — while also appearing to deliberately snub the president at the same time.
