(Headline USA) Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., claimed this week that President Joe Biden should have pardoned President-elect Donald Trump at the same time he pardoned his son, Hunter Biden.
The president announced over the weekend that he had granted a sweeping pardon to Hunter Biden, who was convicted this summer for tax and gun crimes.
The pardon absolves Hunter Biden of any criminal wrongdoing starting in 2014, when Joe Biden was vice president.
Despite Joe Biden’s past promises that he would not issue such a pardon, Manchin said this week that he understood where the president was coming from as “a father.”
However, Joe Biden should have tried to make the pardon politically neutral by also extending one to Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony counts earlier this year for the falsification of business records.
“What I would have done differently, and my recommendations as a counselor would have been, why don’t you go ahead and pardon Donald Trump for all his charges?” Manchin told CNN. ”Make it a lot more balanced, if you will. I’m just saying, wipe them out.”
Other Democrats have been far more critical of Joe Biden’s decision, accusing him of lying to the public about his intentions to pardon Hunter.
“President Biden’s decision to pardon his son was wrong,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said on Monday. “A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment. This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.”
Even leftist California Gov. Gavin Newsom broke with Biden, saying he “can’t support” the president’s self-serving decision.
“With everything the president and his family have been through, I completely understand the instinct to protect Hunter,” Newsom told Politico. “But I took the president at his word. So by definition, I’m disappointed and can’t support the decision.”
