In a very entertaining moment on the Monday, December 2 morning broadcast of “CNN News Central,” host John Berman attempted to moderate a wild clash between CNN analysts Karen Finney and Scott Jennings, who were brawling over President Joe Biden’s blanket pardon of his son, Hunter Biden. Jennings sounded off on how it shows Biden is a liar, and Finney tried to defend the president.
Berman, broaching the subject, called the pardon a “literal get out of jail free card” and said, “Granting clemency for the crimes for which Hunter Biden was convicted of illegally purchasing a gun, a tax evasion, but also a blanket pardon for any federal crimes that may have been committed basically between 2014 and 2024. So what about that literal get out of jail free card for a ten year period?”
Finney, responding first, claimed that the pardon was necessitated by bad behavior from the Republicans, claiming, “Well, look, literally, you know, the president recognizes that Republicans have been for years now trying to attack the president himself, go after his family. And when you have someone who literally ran their campaign on retribution, on the idea of ‘I will be your retribution.’ Getting back at his enemies.”
Continuing, she said that Biden was trying to “take the target off” of Hunter’s back with the pardon, saying, “I would imagine, obviously having spoken to the president about this, but I would imagine the president took a look at this and said, I want to make sure this is ironclad, that there is nothing that can be done to circumvent what I’m going to do to protect my son and to try to take the target off of his back once and for all.”
She added, incorrectly, given that he hasn’t been sentenced, that Trump is a “convicted felon,” saying, “So that’s my reading of it. But again, I think that the hypocrisy here is astounding. I mean, Donald Trump has said and done things, you know, said things and done other things. And again, he’s a convicted felon himself.”
She then claimed, without giving details, that Trump has used “his power” to aid friends and allies, using that evidenceless claim to defend Biden. She said, “He has used his power to benefit his friends, his wealthy allies. In this instance, we’re talking about a man who decided to take care of his son after years of unrelenting attacks. I don’t blame him.”
Berman, chiming back in, asked, “Scott, did you have the same concerns?” Continuing, he pointed to some of Trump’s pardons and asked, “Do you hang on a justice system for the elite, as you put it before, when it was Donald Trump pardoning Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Charlie Kushner, same concern then?”
Jennings, sounding off, first claimed that it was absolutely absurd to try to spin that matter as being the fault of President-elect Donald Trump, saying, “Listen, you guys can spend all day long trying to spin this, that this is Donald Trump’s fault, that this is somehow caused by Donald Trump. He’s appointing the wrong people. He did it.”
Continuing, he claimed that the pardon eviscerates rule of law in America, saying, “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.”
Then, ripping into the Biden Administration for what he characterized as continual lies, he said, “These people are liars. Inflation is transitory. Afghanistan is 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. He’ll never pardon Hunter. It’s all a lie. It is all a grift. Every American except the most partisan brain-rotted people are going to be outraged by this today. He is going to leave off, you think 38, 39% job approval is bad? Just you wait. Just you wait. He’s disgraced, disgraced today. Outrageous.”
Finney freaked out, snapping that Jennings was being mean in “hurling names” in his characterization of those who continue defending President Biden despite the obvious lying. She snapped, “You don’t need to, but you don’t need to hurl names and say people like me are brain rotted. Come on! That’s a little beyond the pale even for you, Scott!”
Then, as Berman tried to moderate, she kept going, saying, “We can disagree–” Jennings interjected, saying, “You don’t have to defend this he is leaving office. You don’t have to defend it. You don’t have to die on this hill. You can say this is wrong because everybody know that it is wrong.” She snapped back, “I am fine with it, Scott, that’s why I’m defending it!”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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