{"id":4600,"date":"2025-01-08T15:04:42","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T15:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/biden-still-mulling-preemptive-pardons-as-trump-prepares-to-take-office\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T15:04:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T15:04:42","slug":"biden-still-mulling-preemptive-pardons-as-trump-prepares-to-take-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/biden-still-mulling-preemptive-pardons-as-trump-prepares-to-take-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden still mulling preemptive pardons as Trump prepares to take office"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Joe Biden told USA Today<\/a> he still hasn\u2019t decided whether to issue preemptive pardons to political allies before he exits the White House, confirming that he\u2019s yet to close the door on insulating those who President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have threatened to target for prosecution.<\/p>\n

He said he also told Trump not to target his perceived enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to make clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores,\u201d Biden said, adding that Trump only listened, not confirming whether he intended to target the president\u2019s political allies.<\/p>\n

The discussions around Biden\u2019s possible preemptive pardons was first reported by POLITICO last month,<\/a> as the president and his aides grew increasingly concerned about the number of current and former officials who could be targeted. Those include former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and former NIAID director Anthony Fauci, who could face inquiries and even indictments \u2014 concerns that only grew after Trump\u2019s selection of Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Democrats and Biden allies have continued to press the president to make the move in his final days.<\/p>\n

In the wide-ranging interview, Biden also discussed his fears about Trump undoing his policies. On the economy, Biden said his greatest concern is that Trump could eliminate elements of the climate law, kick back restrictions on drug manufacturers and cut infrastructure programs.<\/p>\n

The president also said he could\u2019ve won reelection \u2014 a reflection of his defensive posture in the months after Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 defeat. \u201cIt\u2019s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,\u201d he said, adding that it\u2019s because of the polling he had reviewed.<\/p>\n

But he was less sure about whether he had enough vigor to serve another four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, so good,\u201d he said. \u201cBut who knows what I\u2019m going to be when I\u2019m 86 years old? \u2026 who the hell knows?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Joe Biden told USA Today he still hasn\u2019t decided whether to issue preemptive pardons to political allies before he exits the White House, confirming that he\u2019s yet to close the door on insulating those who President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have threatened to target for prosecution. He said he also told Trump not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}