A longtime CNN host who has since moved to a different cable network is the latest unlikely person to call on President Joe Biden to pardon President-elect Donald Trump after the current commander-in-chief granted an unusual clemency to his son, Hunter Biden. NewsNation host Chris Cuomo and ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith made the striking proposal on Monday night during a segment on the former’s nightly show. “You know what else Biden should do? And I know people are going to get upset about this, but just think about it before you go crazy on me,” Cuomo said. “If I were he, I would pardon Trump.”
Smith, who is known for his passionate opinions on sports and is also not unfamiliar with political commentary, quickly supported Cuomo’s proposal. “Honestly, as crazy as this sounds, Chris, that’s exactly what I would do. Enough’s enough,” Smith said. “You’re the Democrats. You lost the election, you got your butt whipped… It’s time to move forward,” he said. The ESPN analyst compared historical political reconciliations, such as Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon after Watergate and Al Gore’s choice to not prolong the 2000 presidential election legal battle. “Why? Because it was for the good of the country,” Smith argued.
Smith noted that over a dozen charges against Trump have been dropped, and the remaining cases are likely to face lengthy appeals. “[If] you want to get at Trump, sit back and judge what he does,” Smith said, urging Democrats to focus on preparing for the midterms and holding Trump accountable during his presidency. A poll conducted by J.L. Partners reveals that President Biden’s approval rating has fallen to a historic low of 37 percent, a four-point drop from earlier surveys. Additionally, 54 percent of voters believe the president acted improperly, casting doubt on his repeated assurances that Hunter Biden would not receive special treatment. The repercussions of this perception go beyond a decline in Biden’s approval ratings.
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Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), who left the Democratic Party earlier this year, is set to retire after decades of public service, choosing not to seek reelection in the strongly Republican state of West Virginia. In a Monday interview, Manchin called on Biden to issue a pardon for Trump following the pardon of Hunter Biden, arguing that such a gesture would promote unity as Biden prepares to hand over the presidency to his successor.
“What I would have done differently, and my recommendation as a counsel would’ve been, ‘Why don’t you go ahead and pardon Donald Trump, for all his charges?’” Manchin said on CNN. He suggested he wouldn’t have done things differently from Biden, adding he doesn’t “know of a father that [wouldn’t have] done the same thing,” according to The Hill.