Charlamagne Tha God on Thursday explained why he thinks President Joe Biden shouldn’t preemptively pardon current and ex-officials who could be targeted by Donald Trump in the president-elect’s second term.
“Makes people look guilty, if you ask me,” said the co-host of “The Breakfast Club.”
Biden has reportedly spoken to senior aides about the possibility of preemptive pardons while Trump has eyed Kash Patel — a loyalist and a “deep state” conspiracy theorist who has vowed to prosecute the president-elect’s enemies — as his pick to serve as FBI director.
Patel — who used his 2023 book to call out dozens of “corrupt actors” that he claimed to be part of the “deep state” — could replace outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has announced his plans to leave the post prior to Trump’s inauguration.
Bill Clinton, while discussing his wife Hillary Clinton being a potential target of the incoming administration on Wednesday’s edition of “The View,” said he doesn’t think he should give Biden “public advice on the pardon power” but he’d be open to discuss such a move if the president is interested.
On Thursday, Charlamagne Tha God suggested that Biden use his pardon power on “all the nonviolent drug offenders in federal prison,” specifically those with “nonviolent weed convictions” along with former Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Mosby was convicted of perjury and mortgage fraud.
“Those are the pardons he should be working on before he get his old ass up out of here,” he said.
Biden commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes on Thursday. Mosby was not on the list despite a public campaign for the pardon and her getting the backing of several supporters.
The radio host questioned why the president would be “pardoning” someone if they don’t have any crimes connected to them.
Democracy In The Balance
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“I just don’t understand why you would give somebody a preemptive pardon, like it just feels like you saying, ’OK, I know this person guilty or something and Trump may go after them,’” he said.
He continued, “I mean, it just seems strange to do preemptive pardons.”