Dem rep confronted with clip of himself claiming Biden wouldn't pardon Hunter: 'What does that feel like?'
Rep. Daniel Goldman was challenged on his previous claim that there was no "chance" President Biden would pardon his son, "unlike his predecessor."
CNN host Brianna Keilar grilled Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., for his previous statements claiming President Biden would never pardon his son, Hunter.
Biden issued a sweeping pardon for Hunter on Sunday after repeatedly promising not to. The first son had been convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year. He pled guilty to federal tax charges in September, and was convicted of three felony gun charges in June after lying on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
The president argued in a statement that Hunter was "singled out only because he is my son" and that there was an effort "trying to break Hunter" in order to "break me."
Keilar interviewed Goldman on Monday, recalling, "You went out on a limb backing up Biden when he said that there would not be a pardon in July of 2023, just after that plea deal fell through."
The news host then played a recording of Goldman arguing in 2023 Biden would never pardon his son.
"I don‘t think there‘s any chance that President Biden is going to do that, unlike his predecessor, who pardoned all of his friends and anyone who had any access to him. And I think you see that in this case where he kept on and Merrick Garland kept on a Trump appointed U.S. attorney to investigate the president‘s son. If there is not an indication of the independence of the Department of Justice beyond that, I don‘t know what what we could look for," the congressman said at the time.
"What does that feel like?" Keilar asked Goldman. "Watching yourself back then reassuring people that Biden was not going to issue a pardon for his son."
"Yeah, and I think that if that plea agreement and that plea deal had gone through there would be no pardon, that was a satisfactory outcome-" Goldman began.
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"It had already fallen," Keilar interjected, correcting her guest. "When you reacted, this was when the deal had fallen through."
She went on to argue that while she can understand his concern about President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director, that doesn’t cancel out the fact he misread Biden’s gameplan.
"You know, you took him at his word, so what does that feel like, knowing that he‘s gone back on it?" she asked.
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"Well, as I said, I‘m disappointed that after the plea fell through, and it became clear about why it did, including Republican congressional intervention in this case, which made this case very unique and very different from any other case," he argued.
He went on to argue that Hunter was specifically targeted because he is the president’s son, and that he would potentially be at risk of "retributive prosecution for political reasons" under Trump’s incoming Department of Justice.
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