U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said Thursday while appearing on TV talk show “The View” that recent criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump and Hunter Biden were politically motivated, and that since Biden received a pardon from his father, President Joe Biden, then Trump also deserves one.
Fetterman, a Democrat from Braddock who appeared virtually from his Washington, D.C. office, was asked by co-host Joy Behar during the broadcast what he thought of Hunter Biden’s pardon.
“I think it’s undeniable that the case against Hunter Biden was really politically motivated,” Fetterman said. “But I also think it’s true that the trial in New York for Trump, that was political as well. In both cases, I think a pardon is appropriate.”
Senator John Fetterman says he believes President-elect Trump deserves a pardon for the New York hush money case.
He says the pardon of Hunter Biden was warranted because he believes it was a politically motivated prosecution, but he also thinks the New York case against Trump… pic.twitter.com/n6vnUwhQ7V
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) December 5, 2024
Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in New York state earlier this year in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actress who said the two had sex.
Hunter Biden was convicted in June of lying on a federal form when he purchased a gun in 2018 and swore that he wasn’t a drug user, though he has acknowledged being addicted at that time. He also pleaded guilty a month earlier to charges accusing him of a scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes.
President Biden cannot issue a pardon in Trump’s hush money case since it was prosecuted in New York state courts. New York’s governor would have to issue the pardon.
Fetterman is not one to shy away from controversial statements or the limelight. He is a regular guest on late-night talk shows and regularly uses his social media accounts to troll his adversaries, often cursing.
When he was introduced on The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg said Fetterman has “built his political career on calling it like he sees it.”
Fetterman also spoke about the political realities facing Democrats with Trump six weeks away from taking office.
He noted that Trump and Republicans won the White House, the Senate and the House and said he expects Trump and his party to do things with which he doesn’t agree.
Fetterman said his plan is to avoid freaking out and instead be selective on picking fights.
“America signed up for this. It is undeniable,” Fetterman said. “He won the popular vote and he ran the table, including in my state. This is what America decided. This is definitely going to go in a direction that a lot of Democrats are not going to agree with.”
