Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) shockingly revealed his support for President Joe Biden to pardon President-elect Donald Trump on the heels of Sunday’s controversial blanket pardon for first son Hunter.
Appearing on ABC’s “The View,” Fetterman was asked by co-host Joy Behar about his views on Biden’s about-face regarding his sons’ criminal case.
“It’s undeniable that the case against Hunter Biden’s trial was really politically motivated but I also think its true that the trial in New York for Trump, that was politically motivated as well,” the first-term senator said.
Fetterman argued that both Hunter’s prosecution and Trump’s “hush money” trial brought up by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg were done so by a “weaponized” justice system going after political rivals.
The 55-year-old suggested the outgoing president should relieve all 34 felony charges Trump was convicted of back in May.
“In both cases, I think a pardon is appropriate,” Fetterman revealed.
The Keystone State senator believes the nation’s views on the justice system have been negatively damaged because of the trials against the younger Biden and the former and future president.
“America’s confidence in these types of institutions have been damaged by these types of cases and we cannot allow these kinds of institutions to be weaponized against our political opponents,” he said.
“Both of those trials were clearly politically motivated and those kinds of charges would have never been brought unless one side realized they could weaponize that.”
Fetterman chided Biden’s pardon as it threw a wrench in the party’s view that the criminal justice system can give convicted felons a second chance following a prison sentence.
Fetterman isn’t the only big-name Democrat to criticize the 82-year-old commander-in-chief for his familial interference on his son’s conviction.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted the lame-duck president for going back on his word that he wouldn’t pardon Hunter after a federal jury found him guilty of felony gun charges back in June.
“With everything the president and his family have been through, I completely understand the instinct to protect Hunter,” Newsom told Politico of Biden, who has lost two of his children.
“But I took the president at his word,” he added. “So by definition, I’m disappointed and can’t support the decision.”
Several top Democrat donors have threatened to withhold future funding because of Biden’s decision and even suggested making amends similar to Fetterman’s own take – that he should pardon Trump.
As Trump, 78, gears up for his return to the White House in January, his four criminal cases have begun to wind down.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan postponed sentencing in the “hush money” trial, days after Bragg agreed to pause the sentencing following Trump’s election victory on Nov. 5.
Merchan ordered Bragg and Trump’s lawyers to file their arguments in December on whether the case should be tossed before the court issues its decision.
Trump’s legal team has asked a Georgia appeals court to throw out a criminal case accusing him of election interference on the grounds that he will have presidential immunity when he takes office again in January.
The president-elect and 14 others were hit with racketeering charges in 2023 by scandal-scarred Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in the Peach State. Trump has denied the allegations.
A federal judge in Washington DC granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against Trump that had alleged the then-sitting president had made efforts of subversion following the 2020 presidential election.
Smith’s motion was based on Trump’s election victory and the precedent against indicting a sitting US president.
Smith also filed a similar motion in Trump’s Florida classified documents case.
“As a result of the election held on November 5, 2024, one of the defendants in this case, Donald J. Trump, is expected to be certified as President-elect on January 6, 2025, and inaugurated on January 20, 2025,” Smith wrote to the Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
