Charlamagne tha God rips potential Biden preemptive pardons: 'Makes people look guilty'
Charlamagne urged Biden to use the pardons on non-violent criminals
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Radio host Charlamagne Tha God urged President Biden not to issue a preemptive pardon for President-elect Trump’s political foes before leaving office, stating the move would imply the recipients are guilty.
He made the comments during the Thursday episode of the "Breakfast Club" radio show, adding that the president should focus on individuals in prison for non-violent offenses.
"I don’t think President Biden should do preemptive pardons either. Makes people look guilty if you ask me. Biden should be pardoning all the nonviolent drug offenders in federal prison," he said in a clip flagged by Mediaite.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WHO ELSE MIGHT BIDEN PARDON AFTER HE SPARED HUNTER FROM SENTENCING?
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God recently urged President Biden not to preemptively pardon President-elect Trump's enemies because it "makes people look guilty." (Marcus Ingram/Getty Images)
The White House on Thursday announced that the president commuted jail sentences for nearly 1,500 people and granted 39 pardons, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
According to recent reporting from Politico, the White House is also currently discussing pardoning prominent Trump critics, including Dr. Anthony Fauci; Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The outlet noted that White House counsel Ed Siskel is arranging discussions about the potential pardons with several other senior Biden aides, including chief of staff Jeff Zients, though Biden himself has not been a part of the conversations yet.
During Wednesday’s episode of ABC’s "The View," former President Clinton spoke about Biden potentially pardoning his wife, Hillary Clinton. "I think if President Biden wanted to talk to me about that, I will talk to him about it, but I don’t think I should be giving public advice on the pardon power," he said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden broke his repeated promise to not pardon his son, Hunter, announcing earlier this month that he had pardoned him. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Charlamagne responded to those comments on Thursday, again stressing that the president should keep the pardons for non-violent offenders.
"He should be pardoning everybody in federal prison for non-violent weed convictions, okay? He should be pardoning Marilyn Mosby," he said, mentioning the former Baltimore state attorney.
"Those are the pardons he should be working on before he gets his old a-- up out of here," the host said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Breakfast Club" co-host DJ Envy defended the idea of pardoning Trump’s enemies so that he can’t go after them once back in the White House: "We know who Trump is, and we know what Trump’s probably going to do."
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Charlamagne shot back, "Or it could mean Trump knows something that we don’t know and that’s why he’s going after these people. I just don’t understand why you would give somebody a preemptive pardon. Like, it just feels like you saying, ‘Okay, I know this person is guilty of something, and Trump may go after them.'"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Other liberals have advised Biden to avoid preemptively pardoning Trump's foes. Washington Post journalist Ruth Marcus wrote a column this week stating that Biden using the pardon in this way "would set an unfortunate precedent, one likely to be repeated by some future presidents seeking to shield their allies from retribution."
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.