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Biden's Pardons Created a Headache for His Fellow Democrats

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 22, 2025 4:00 PM

On Monday, minutes before President Donald Trump took office once again, now former President Joe Biden pardoned his family. It was a bold move from the outgoing president, and one that even his fellow Democrats took issue with. Later that same day, Trump issued pardons for January 6 defendants, just as he promised that he would. 

In expressing outrage, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) called out both pardons. He, as was the case with many other Democrats, was less than thrilled with Trump using his pardoning power in such a way.

CNN's Manu Raju, in speaking to many senators about the move, also highlighted how Kaine was "very disappointed" in Biden preemptively pardoning his family members.

"I think it's harder to make a critique, to stand on the high ground and make a critique of the Trump pardons on January 6 when President Biden is pardoning family members," Kaine offered.

Per Fox News' Chad Pergram, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said "I don't like all the pardons," speaking about those from Biden and Trump. 

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"I don't like all the pardons. I don't like the pardons that Biden did it on the way out. And I don't like the pardons that Trump did on the way in," Pergram quoted the congressman as saying. 

It's not merely Democratic members of Congress, either. Axios on Wednesday morning highlighted remarks from a longtime friend of the Biden family:

📝 Biden, under the guise of protecting his family from unfair political and legal persecution, preemptively pardoned his brothers James and Frank Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, and John Owens and Sara Biden, the spouses of Valerie and James. This is unprecedented.

  • "It's disgusting," Bill Daley — a longtime Biden friend who was White House chief of staff under President Obama — told us. It "confirms that there are serious concerns about culpability." Daley said the Bidens will never wipe this "stain" from the former president's legacy.

In his VIP column for earlier on Wednesday, Kurt weighed in on the pardons. He's also used previous columns to enthusiastically call for Trump to pardon all of the January 6 defendants. 

As he mentioned in his latest column [with added emphasis]: 

Now, does a pardon necessarily mean that you have admitted guilt of the underlying crime? No, though, people say that all the time. Pardons can be protective. You can protect people from injustice, which is what Joe Biden said he was doing, even though we all know he wasn’t doing that when he pardoned the persecutors and traitors. But pardoning people protectively is a real thing, and it’s a good thing. We should be happy about it. That’s an important power for the president, one that the J6 persecutions have shown is vital. As much as the losers and creeps Joe Biden pardoned are losers and creeps, their acceptance of a pardon is not an admission of guilt as a matter of law. As a matter of reality, in this case, it kind of is. But law and reality are different things. And there’s a lot of talk about how this sets a bad precedent, but I’m glad that President Trump will be able to leave office and protect the people who the Democrats will unfairly persecute should they regain power. 

The move from the outgoing president was particularly bold, as he did it before Trump could even properly react. Scott Jennings weighed in on such a decision when reacting to Trump's speech on Monday.

"I thought this was an incredible speech, honestly, and truly, watching Donald Trump indict these gangsters to their faces while they had to sit right in front of him in that intimidate setting in the rotunda for Republicans, was remarkable. They had to sit there and take it just minutes after Biden... pardoned his entire family," Jennings mentioned. 

Jennings later shared the distinction during a CNN panel discussion.

As the panel discussed who was behind the pardons, Jennings offered his thoughts that Biden's "been plotting to do this for months and months and months, just like he was plotting to pardon Hunter Biden for months, while lying to the American people about it." The former president's pardon for Hunter came early last December, after Biden and then White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly claimed he would do no such thing. 

"And this is the problem. If you want to be outraged about Donald Trump's January 6 pardons, it's just hard for me to muster the same kind of—," Jennings continued, before Anderson Cooper cut him off to point out that Jennings had concerns with January 6.

Once he was able to get a word in edgewise, Jennings finished his point, making clear he still condemns January 6. "I don't feel any differently about January 6 today, as I felt on the day when you and I sat here. But I don't feel any differently about it at all. It was a terrible day. It should not have happened. People should not have committed violent acts. And it was a stain on the end of Donald Trump's first term," he offered. "However, I have taken in that event, his term, Biden's term, and then the American people took it all in, and they just rendered the ultimate adjudication for it."

CNN's Harry Enten highlighted earlier this month how Americans care less about January 6 and also blame Trump for it less. 

Jennings also further drew a distinction about the pardons. "And the difference between the preemptive pardons, and these pardons is the January 6 people, whether you like it or not, did, most of them, did face severe punishment. Some have already been in jail and already out of jail. Yes, they got a pardon, but that doesn't mean they didn't face consequences for their actions. My problem with Biden is none of these preemptive pardons people are going to face any consequences," he pointed out, before being cut off by David Axelrod to ask about why the Biden family crime family would need pardons. 

As Van Jones brought up it was "because of Trump," Axelrod himself also acknowledged how he "was critical" of the pardons "because it gave a talking point... to people who wanted to sort of minimize 1,500 mass paroles."

The outgoing president didn't merely preemptively pardon his family members, though. Hours before that on Monday, he also issued preemptive pardons for Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of the January 6 select committee.

Such pardons were also criticized, even and including by committee members, like Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA).