On Sunday night, President Joe Biden announced a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, after the White House had previously claimed on numerous occasions that the president would do no such thing. The fallout, as Townhall has been covering, has been swift and severe. Perhaps the best reaction, however, came from CNN’s Scott Jennings. It was certainly one of the most fierce reactions we've seen from him.
When it comes to reactions from the left, we’ve seen downright denials about Biden's lies, claims that the president is just trying to be a good dad, and whataboutism when it comes to President-elect Donald Trump.
Jennings wasn’t having any of it, though.
After Hillary Clinton's 2016 advisor Karen Finney had said "well, tough" about how even some of Biden’s fellow Democrats were less than pleased with the pardon, and then tried to make it about Trump, Jennings from the start shared how he really felt.
"Joe Biden is leaving office making the strongest possible case for Donald Trump that anybody could possibly make it, and that's that our government and our justice system is of, by, and for the elites and nobody else," Jennings offered. "He ran to banish Trumpism from our political system in this country and he has left it politically and now institutionally the strongest possible political force in this country. It is a complete and utter failure by the head of the Democratic Party and the President of the United States," he continued.
As for those, like Finney, who want to make it about Trump, Jennings made further clear he is sick of such nonsense. "Never again do I want to hear 'Oh, Donald Trump's a liar. You can't believe anything he says. Donald Trump will abuse his power. Donald Trump will only use the system to benefit himself and his family,' and so on and so forth. Never again," he stressed.
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Speaking directly to Finney, Jennings also brought up specific elements of the pardon that have been concerning. "I have one question for Karen and that is why did he need an 11-year blanket pardon going back to 2014 when Joe Biden was the vice president? We are sitting on the biggest coverup of who knows what crimes, and Joe Biden amazingly knows exactly roughly when it started. He knows just about when it all started. He's leaving office in complete and total disgrace. He is a liar and there is no other way to spin this today. This has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the character of Joe Biden," Jennings stressed, while Finney laughed at such a question.
When host John Berman asked Finney about the pardon and its timeline, Finney's response included lines with emotional talking points, such as how "the president recognizes that Republicans have been for years now trying to attack the president himself and go after his family," claiming Trump "literally ran [his] campaign on retribution" and of "getting back at his enemies," despite how it's the Biden-Harris administration and the DOJ that has gone after their political enemies, including but not limited to Trump.
Finney also offered that her "reading of it" is that Biden wanted to "make sure this is ironclad," though she hadn't spoken to the president about it. She then launched right into making it further about Trump, decrying how, "I think the hypocrisy is astounding," before going for the line that "in this instance, we're talking about a man who decided to take care of his son after years of unrelenting attacks." Finney even stressed "I don't blame him," speaking about the president. This prompted Jennings to no longer stay silent on the sidelines.
"Listen, you guys can spend all day long trying to spin this. That this is Donald Trump's fault. That this has somehow been caused by Donald Trump. 'Oh, he's appointing the wrong people. Oh, he did. Oh,'" Jennings said over the claims about Trump.
He then had even more harsh words for Biden from there, and not just on pardoning his son, which again, the president had previously indicated he would not do. "This is the worst possible thing a president could possibly do to his party and to the country to sit for a year and say 'I will not do this. I will not do this. The rule of law is sacred. We have to respect the justice system. Juries--we have to respect juries. We have to respect the guardrails and the norms of our democracy,'" Jennings offered, pointing to narratives we've heard from Biden and the White House.
"These people are liars," he emphasized before bringing up even more examples. "'Inflation is transitory. Afghanistan--it's a success. The border is secure. Robert Hur is a liar. The videos are cheap fakes. Biden has a cold. He'll never drop out. Oh, I'll never pardon Hunter.' It's all a lie. It is all a grift," Jennings made clear, as he also pointed out he's not the only one who feels this way, far from it.
"Every American, except the most partisan, brain-rotted people, are going to be outraged by this today," Jennings continued before Finney tried to cut him off to take issue with his word choice. "He is going to leave office--you think 38-39 percent job approval is bad? Just you wait. Just you wait," Jennings warned, speaking about Biden's already low approval ratings. "He's disgraced."
Even after all of the examples provided, Finney still denied Biden was lying, even making clear "I'm fine with it, Scott. I am defending it," when it comes to the pardon. "I don't think that he was lying. I think he made a decision after the fact and decided this was the right thing for him and for his family, period, full stop," she added about Biden, still stubbornly sticking to those talking points, prompting laughter from Jennings.
As he pushed back against Finney, reminding her of the lies that came from Biden and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Jennings was not going any easier on the Democratic political consultant.
"How many minutes of tape do we have of both of these people telling the American people this will not happen? It's--I mean, we could play it all morning. It's a lie, and it's a lie to benefit his own family and that's all that it is," prompting Finney to still insist "that's fine."
"He's drained every ounce of credibility from every surrogate. If Karine Jean-Pierre had an ounce of self-respect she'd get off the plane in Africa today--where they're going so he can avoid the press--and resign. He's drained all of her credibility and everybody else who has defended this. It's draining, draining forever."
Scott Jennings Shuts Down CNN Panelist Trying to Blame Trump for Biden Pardoning Hunter
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) December 2, 2024
This is the mic drop moment of the day.
“We are sitting on the biggest cover-up of who knows what crimes, and Biden knows exactly when it started. He’s leaving office in disgrace—a liar.… pic.twitter.com/ZtigL8IjZe
Even Berman agreed that Biden and Jean-Pierre were on tape saying the president would not pardon his son.
Finney still did not appear to have learned her lesson, though, as she stuck to her claims that it's Trump who will be focused on "retribution," and claimed that many Democrats were in agreement with her. That being said, there have been plenty of Democrats who have openly criticized the president for pardoning his son.
Since that segment aired, Jean-Pierre doubled down on lying about how Biden said he would not pardon his son, as Katie covered earlier on Monday. Jennings also further took note of such remarks to call them out for being "a disgrace."
Update: the White House press secretary actually doubled down on the lying today. What a disgrace. https://t.co/vKthgOtwYh
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) December 2, 2024
NEW: Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden always believes to be "truthful to the American people" after a reporter asked her why Biden lied about not pardoning his son.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 2, 2024
The gaslighting never ends.
Reporter: You and Biden said for months that he wouldn't pardon Hunter... could those… pic.twitter.com/xTPVqNR7kj
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