CNN Conservatives Go Scorched Earth Educating Viewers on Hunter Biden Pardon

Curtis Houck
December 2nd, 2024 5:58 PM

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On Monday, Scott Jennings, Shermichael Singleton, and Brad Todd — three of the four actual, bona fide conservative commentators on CNN’s payroll — took to the airwaves to react to President Joe Biden’s blanket pardon of son Hunter for any and all crimes committed in the last 10 years and, in addition to standing their ground, went postal on this “trash” “facade” created by a bunch of “liars.”

The morning edition of CNN News Central fortunately had Scott Jennings on and, needless to say, he came locked and loaded, first noting this pardon was “a complete and utter failure by” the President and that he “never again” wants to hear liberals melting down about Donald Trump as having abused his office:

After hearing liberal commentator Karen Finney defend the pardon as a natural response to Republicans having spent years “trying to attack the President himself and go after his family,” Jennings uncorked a grab bag of leftist slogans about needing to defend democratic norms and other lies over the last four years (click “expand”):

 

 

JENNINGS: [L]isten, 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. “Oh, he’s appointing the wrong people.” “Oh, he did it. Oh —“ 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.” 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.” “Oh, I’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 percent —

FINNEY: Scott, hold up!

JENNINGS: — job approval is bad? Just you wait. Just you wait. He’s disgraced —

FINNEY: Scott, don’t —

JENNINGS: — disgraced today. Outrageous.

As Finney whined about Jennings “hurl[ing] names,” Jennings fired back she should “stand up for yourself” and “you don’t have to defend” the pardon.

“You don’t have to die on this hill. You can say this is wrong because everybody knows that it is. Are you fine with the lying? Are you fine with him sitting before the election all year and lying to the American people? Are you fine with the lying about it,” he added.

Jennings offered a mic drop after Finney claimed Biden wasn’t “lying” over the past year-plus when he said he wouldn’t pardon his son:

 

 

 

Do we not have the minutes — Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre, how many minutes of tape do we have of both of these people telling the American people this will not happen? It’s — it’s a — I mean, we could play it all morning. It’s a lie and it’s a lie to benefit his own family and everybody who went on TV and said, “oh, look how — he’s the modern George Washington.” He’s drained every ounce of credibility from every surrogate. If Karine Jean-Pierre had an ounce of self-respect, she’d get off the plane in Africa today where they’re going so he can avoid the press — and resign. He’s drained all of her credibility and everybody else who has defended this. It’s draining, draining forever.

Hours earlier, On Message founder and fellow CNN conservative Brad Todd told CNN This Morning viewers to notice the Hunter pardon includes the First Son’s chicanery with Burisma, predicting that since he now “doesn’t need the Fifth Amendment,” he might “tell us everything” without any fear of prosecution.

On that note, he also predicted “[m]ore people will be pardoned by this — this administration who dealt with Hunter Biden”:

Finally, Singleton squared off on CNN Newsroom with host Jim Acosta and liberal commentator Maria Cardona, making the case the issue begins and ends with Biden’s hypocrisy as a “ethical arbiter of maintaining our institutions”:

Singleton also took Biden to task for changing his tune, insisting for years he (and the American public) would respect our legal system to only discount it as having engaged in “a witch hunt against” Hunter.

Acosta and Cardona tried to change the subject, invoking possible Trump pardons regarding January 6, but Singleton remained firm on the fact that the American public knew full well those might happen with a Trump presidency, but “ultimately still decided to elect” him after “compar[ing]” that “to other issues” (click “expand”):

 

 

SINGLETON: I think the American people had the opportunity to assess how significant this was to them, and they ultimately still decided to elect the former president — now President-Elect.

ACOSTA: Do you think people voted to pardon the January 6 attackers?

SINGLETON: No, no, Jim, that’s not that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that Donald Trump has made this argument throughout his campaign who he was going to pardon and I’m simply saying the American people were well aware of that. And they still voted for the President-Elect, so I’m not sure what significance is weighed on their minds when compared to other issues.

CARDONA: That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be taken into consideration.

SINGLETON: I do think, however, though, when you are attempting to draw this moral contrast between President Biden and President-Elect Trump, that President Biden is somehow morally superior because he respects institutions and the rule of law after years of saying I would not pardon my son to ultimately doing it, that’s the issue. I think people, Jim, understand pardoning your son.

ACOSTA: Yeah, but I — Sher — I hear what you’re saying, but —

SINGLETON: I think people get it. It’s the constant lying that’s the problem.

Later, Singleton concluded with this simple premise that, if the President hadn’t committed to weighing in and then pardoned his son, more Americans might have respected him.

“He didn’t do that and that’s the problem for me, morally and ethically. You said you were going to do one thing and you decided not to. I get the reason behind why, but don’t — don’t lie to the American people. And he didn’t have to,” he argued.

Singleton returned a few hours later for The Lead and, with far less time on-set, he uncorked a doozy opining on what he views as rancorous hypocrisy:

To see the relevant CNN transcripts from December 2, click here (for CNN This Morning), here (for CNN News Central), here (for CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta), and here (for CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper).

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