President Trump on Wednesday repeatedly suggested it was a mistake that former President Biden did not preemptively pardon himself before leaving office.
Trump, in a sit-down interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, also danced around questions on whether Biden should be investigated. But on multiple occasions, Trump signaled Biden should have taken advantage of the pardon power to protect himself.
“This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” he said. “And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him.”
Trump later said Biden “got very bad advice.”
“Joe Biden has very bad advisers. Somebody advised Joe Biden to give pardons to everybody but him,” Trump said.
Trump told Hannity he would defer to Congress as to whether lawmakers should investigate Biden and his decision to preemptively pardon family members and Trump critics like retired Gen. Mark Milley, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and members of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In announcing those pardons, Biden said he was concerned those individuals would be subject to politically motivated investigations.
The president also suggested Biden and other critics should have to endure the same legal battles that he faced the last two years after he was indicted in New York, Georgia, Florida and Washington, D.C.
“I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with. I went through four years of hell,” Trump said of his legal battles. “I spent millions of dollars in legal fees, and I won. But I did it the hard way. It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also. It is very hard to say it.”
Trump also revealed to Hannity that he was given the option on his way out of the White House in his first term to pardon himself, but declined.
“I was given the option. They said sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to pardon anybody. We didn’t do anything wrong,’” Trump said.
