‘A Stain on His Legacy’: CNN’s Manu Raju Rips Biden’s Pardon of His Son In Discussion Of Trump’s Shady History of Pardons

CNN’s Manu Raju pulled no punches on Monday while discussing President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter the day before. During a segment in which anchor Dana Bash discussed President-elect Donald Trump’s shady history of the presidential pardon, Raju argued that now both Trump and Biden have stains on their legacies.

“And you say it certainly from a lot of perspective, but it’s a stain on his legacy. The other way to look at it is that the criticism, given where we are in politics right now, is a lot of pearl-clutching. Particularly from Republicans who are criticizing him,” Bash said, adding:

And just to remind our viewers what President Trump did during his first term. Just some of the people he pardoned: Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D’Souza, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, Steve Bannon, Albert Pirro Jr, who is Judge Jeanine’s husband, rather.

And just looking particularly at Charles Kushner, just as an example, this is a family member. This is the father-in-law of his daughter, Ivanka. He also, by the way, Trump also this weekend nominated him to a prime ambassador post. So. If I’m Joe Biden sitting there watching the Republicans, I say, ‘Give me a break.’

“That’s probably one reason why he did it. Now, Jeff [Zeleny] is absolutely right, though. This is a stain on his legacy. I mean, what Bill Clinton did in giving a pardon to Marc Rich, of course, the donor to the Clintons, right in the eye as he was leaving office. That’s also a stain on his legacy,” Raju replied, adding:

What you mentioned, therefore, for Donald Trump, also undoubtedly a stain going forward. The bigger problem for Biden is just they were decent. He was dishonest with the American public about whether he would give a pardon. They said pretty flatly right before the election when he was interviewed, when he was still in the race a couple of months out, that he would not give a party.

He said that repeatedly. Karine Jean-Pierre said it repeatedly to the American public. So that is also not only giving it to his son. And, you know, pardons always look bad on a president particularly, but giving doing it for political favors or a family member. But what he said publicly, they were completely, they were not straight with the American public. And people remember that.

Watch the clip above via CNN.