On Monday, PBS News Hour’s White House reporter Laura Barron-Lopez called up the liberal media’s campaign-period name-calling of re-elected President Trump as “the convicted felon,” while skating over Biden’s preemptive family pardons.
Co-anchor Amna Nawaz launched the festival of excuse-making on outgoing President Biden’s behalf.
Amna Nawaz: President Trump's second term officially kick-starts with an ambitious and controversial agenda that's expected to bring mass deportations, aggressive tariffs on imports from competitors and allies alike, and a promise of retribution against political foes that led to last-minute pardons from outgoing President Joe Biden.
Next, reporter Barron-Lopez dutifully weaved in the "convicted felon" motif.
Barron-Lopez: From attempting to overturn the legitimate election results four years ago, to embattled criminal defendant and convicted felon, to president of the United States once more, today marked a political turnaround not seen in modern times….Trump had previewed a theme of unity for his address, but his messages quickly changed to one of condemnation, while his predecessor, Joe Biden, sat feet away.
She went easy on Biden’s unprecedented “preemptive pardons,” blaming Trump.
Barron-Lopez: For his final acts in office, Biden ordered preemptive pardons to a number of Trump's most high-profile targets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, as well as Liz Cheney and other members of the House January 6 Committee. Biden also pardoned members of his family from Trump's threats of prosecution and revenge. Meanwhile, in remarks to his supporters, Trump again promised pardons for some of the rioters who violently stormed the Capitol four years ago.
The same night, co-anchor Geoff Bennett repeated the “convicted felon” line (PBS didn’t bother to note the partisan Democratic fervor behind that dubious Manhattan trial).
Geoff Bennett: Donald Trump, now the first convicted felon sworn in as commander in chief, says he plans to issue a sweeping series of pardons for defendants charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That's as Joe Biden and one of his final acts as president this morning issued preemptive pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol to prevent potential revenge by the new Trump administration….
Bennett asked his guest, former Justice Department official Mary McCord, about Trump pardoning the January 6 prisoners.
Mary McCord, Former Justice Department Official: I think it really does damage to our criminal legal system. I mean, pardons are certainly given by presidents of both parties. The typical -- and we have seen some unusual uses of pardons recently, which I know we're going to talk about….
Bu that conversation was much milder and more mitigated when it came to the outgoing Democrat’s preemptive pardons, including for Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Biden’s family.
Bennett: ….Novel use of the presidential pardon power. What questions does it raise?
Mary McCord, a PBS News favorite, went full Biden, even defending his preemptive pardons of his family’s financial sleaze.
McCord: So this is also extraordinary. And as President Biden said, this was really because of the exceptional circumstances we're in, where Donald Trump and those around him have repeatedly over the course of the campaign and really the course of the last four years talked about retribution, right, talked about going after those who have come after him, and actually named many of these people by name….So I think what President Biden felt was a sort of a moral obligation to try to protect them from unfounded, baseless investigations and prosecutions….And similarly, with his family members, it's again, it's this concern about retribution….
Bennett very mildly questioned McCord on Biden’s unprecedented pardons, and McCord came through with what she considered sound historical precedent.
McCord: So there is some precedent for something like this, including President Carter's blanket pardons for draft dodgers after Vietnam….
