Biden Pardon Spurs Political infighting
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It's Tuesday, December 3rd, right now on CNN This Morning. I think that it was the right move. I wish the president had kept his word. Political infighting. How President Biden's decision to pardon his son is further splitting a party still reeling from election defeat. And... He had a good explanation, but I'm not going to try to explain to y'all. More allegations. Trump's choice to lead the Pentagon facing more tough questions about his record. And...

Israel is the one. And you should let him go and let him finish his job. Hell to pay. Trump issuing a new threat over how his administration would handle the Israel-Hamas war. And... This ain't nothing. You get used to this kind of weather living here. Piling on, some places have gotten more than five feet of lake effect snow, and it is not over just yet.

All right. It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, the United States. It is almost noon in Angola, where you're looking live at where President Biden is expected to arrive at the presidential palace. We're going to see him any moment now on this Wednesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. With just weeks until Inauguration Day, attention in Washington and around the world shifting rapidly away from Joe Biden and toward President-elect Trump.

Donald Trump, the president, as you saw there right now on one of his last trips abroad as president. The trip is designed to showcase American investment and aid to Africa. But it's been overshadowed by Biden's announcement of a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter. That decision managing the rear feet of uniting Democrats and Republicans in condemnation of the president's reversal of his repeated claims that he would not issue the pardon.

He didn't need to tell the American public, I will not do this. And he did, and when you made a promise, you gotta keep it. His decision further undermines the public's confidence in our judicial system. It just gives the American people a sense that there's one system for the rich and powerful and another system for everybody else. I was surprised, I was disappointed. I think it was out of bounds. We

operate under rule of law and we hate to see precedents being sent. Don't lie to us. Don't tell us you're not going to do it and then do it. That's not what a president should be like.

President-elect Trump, in contrast, commands the pretty unflinching loyalty of a Republican Party that is preparing to enact radical changes in America's policies, both here at home and abroad. As Peter Baker of The New York Times writes, quote, Mr. Biden is sliding toward the end of his presidency in lackluster fashion. He has largely ceded the stage to Mr. Trump, who is already conducting his own foreign policy.

Withdrawing from the fray, Mr. Biden maintains a light public schedule and has not held a news conference or given an interview since the election. He was such a marginalized figure during a recent international summit in Brazil that when he was late for a group photograph, other world leaders did not bother to wait and went ahead without him.

This emerging reality being made clear yesterday when we learned that it is the president-elect and not the president who's been invited to the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral set to be held in Paris on Saturday.

Sources tell CNN the invitation came from the office of French President Emmanuel Macron, who was also the first world leader to congratulate Trump on his victory last month. The trip will be Trump's first since the election and will mark his grand re-entrance on the global stage. Shall we remember what that was like?

We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do. Thank you, everybody. The entire civilized world must unite to confront the North Korean menace. We do have a very special relationship. In fact, I'll get that little piece of dandruff for you.

We have to make him perfect. He is perfect. President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. Stepping across that line was a great honor. A lot of progress has been made. A lot of friendships have been made. And this has been, in particular, a great friendship.

Okay, our panel's here. Jonah Goldberg, CNN political commentator, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch. Mark Preston, CNN senior political analyst. Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director. And Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Good morning. Jonah, man, that walk down memory lane of Trump on the world stage, I mean, that's what we are heading back to as Biden steps off. Yeah, time is a flat circle.

I think they're working on cloning Donald Trump right now so he can be president through 2065. Because it just feels like this is just, this is not gonna end anytime soon. - Kate Bedingfield,

How do you see what the president did here with this pardon in terms of the big picture for his presidency here? I mean, obviously, he did this on a Sunday night and then he flies off to Africa, right, as Donald Trump, as we just outlined, is about to step back on to the world stage. And his party here at home has not exactly been kind to him. Yeah, look, I think the

I think the idea that Biden has somehow opened the door for Trump to do things that he was not otherwise going to do is completely ludicrous. I mean, it is Trump who has completely thrown norms out the window here for the now almost last decade. In many ways, I think Biden was responding to what Donald Trump himself and his appointees like Kash Patel have said about how they intend to use the Justice Department. And I think

Look, I think it's understandable that a father would make that decision. But for 10, 11 years? But I do think, look, I wish that he had been, I wish that he had conveyed differently that he was considering doing this. I do think it is...

You know, I think there are different ways to convey ambiguity when you have not made a decision. I think even after the election, having his team say he wasn't going to do this. You know, I do think there is a cost that comes with that. And I wish that he had done that differently. I don't think the pearl clutching from from Republicans about, again, you know, somehow Biden has somehow like blown the doors off Republicans.

using the justice system in an independent way. I don't think that carries a lot of water. I do understand why Democrats are frustrated that Biden was not more forthcoming about how he was thinking about this.

Look, I think Democrats were the ones that lectured the Republicans throughout the entire campaign that we were the ones that were saving democracy. We were the ones that were upholding the rule of law in a way conveying the superiority. And it's been laid bare that they weren't. And I mean, I remember being on the show in June and Alex Thompson and I were talking about the fact that like, hey, he could pardon, you know, I would not be surprised if this happened. And honestly, I would have respected it more if he just said, you know what? Bleep you people. I'm not letting...

My son rot in prison during my you know, who knows like another last decade of life possibly I'm not letting that happen. I don't care. I have the power to do it instead I think to even your point like he concocted this self-righteous cloak where it was just a bunch of baloney and Really what it was about was I had the I had the ability to get this done You wish you had it for your family possibly, but I do so I'm gonna do it and I think that is where it's just I

clearly, clearly lays bare that kind of there's two sides to the judicial system. And I think tactically,

This makes it a lot easier for, say, someone like Akash Patel to get through where it really does somewhat convey what he's been saying and has a lot more campaigns now. I do think it would have been more effective to focus the statement more heavily on what Trump and his team have said about how they intend to use the Justice Department rather than...

giving some credence, giving some language to Republicans that the Justice Department, that this process that has been undertaken with regard to Hunter was in and of itself flawed. And I think that that piece of the way the president and his team framed this

You know, I do think that was unfortunate. I think the pardon itself, I will say, I think is totally defensible. And I think given the way that Trump has talked about what he intends to do, I think it's defensible. I do wish that he had framed it differently. Let's take a moment to just watch what Kash Patel has said over the course of the past couple of years about Hunter Biden, because we've learned that his appointment may have played some role in the president's decision to do this. Let's watch.

I've always said, and I still believe Hunter Biden's going to be indicted for criminal activity. Hunter Biden is guilty of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They know what Hunter Biden's laptop contains. These laptops are the basis of tremendous amounts of criminal activity. Hunter Biden will be charged no matter what. So Mark Preston, how does that play into this? Does it

help, you know, matters in terms of the criticism that's been leveled at Biden or does it not? Well, I think a couple of things. One is Joe Biden, his party abandoned him, right? So basically everyone has abandoned Joe Biden, you know, here in Washington. And you got to wonder if he's looking around saying, you know what?

What's good for Donald Trump now is going to be good for me. And in the end, the people who really rallied around and stuck with Joe Biden was his family. Remember, we were the ones saying it was his family, the ones that were really making the political decisions about what he was going to do. I do think this, you know, there are two things can be correct. First of all, the norms are gone. Right. We absolutely know that. But at the same time, air cover has been given to Republicans because Joe Biden has decided to do this part.

All right. No, go ahead. Yeah. So just very quickly, I think Kate's wrong that this is totally defensible. I think it's almost entirely indefensible. But if you wanted to square the circle in a more defensible way, what Biden could have done is say is honored his commitment not to pardon Hunter for the things he was convicted for by a jury.

and say, but for anything else that Kash Patel wants to go on a fishing expedition, I'm giving a blanket pardon for that because I don't trust Trump. That would be the messaging that would honor his promise, wouldn't make him a huge liar, and at the same time protect his kid from gratuitous persecution by the Trump administration.

So you basically are arguing, I mean, because some people have looked at that 10-year thing and said, well, that's more egregious than the pardon for these things that we've already said. You would actually flip that. I would flip that. I think that's defensible given what the things that Kash Patel has said, given the things that Trump has said, given the open-ended fishing expedition thing. And I would ground it not by throwing my own Justice Department under the bus and saying the system is rigged that I'm in charge of. I would say, look, I'm a dad.

To Matt's point, screw all you people. I'm sacrificing a big chunk of my kid's life to the system because I promised I would. But beyond that, I'm not letting him become a target for these jackals. All right, very interesting. All right, up next here on CNN This Morning, Pete Hegseth on the Hill as new allegations of misconduct come to light.

Anthony Scaramucci will be here to discuss Trump's controversial pick to leave the Pentagon and much more. Plus, hell to pay Donald Trump threatening Hamas if the hostages are not released before he's returned to office. And digging out homes, cars, buried in over five feet of snow, another foot could come down today. The snow being so deep and getting stuck, you're getting stuck everywhere you go, everybody getting stuck. So like, that's the worst part.

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I know you're busy. We all are. But if you have 15 minutes or so every week and want to better understand the news, I've got a podcast I think you should check out. I'm David Rind, and I'm the host of CNN One Thing. Every week, I call up a plugged-in CNN correspondent, and we talk about a story they're covering. We break it down carefully and with context, without the unnecessary noise, so you can get on with your week. Follow CNN's One Thing on iHeartRadio.

According to the whistleblower, Heg Zeth and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization's female staffers, whom they divided into two groups, the party girls and the not-party girls. Eventually, both groups became known as the can-we-please-work-from-home girls.

New reporting about alleged sexual impropriety and alcohol abuse by Trump's choice for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, adding to the swirl of controversy around Trump's proposed cabinet. Trump's controversial picks setting up what could be significant fights on Capitol Hill to get these key nominations approved. Now, some top Republican senators say they are open to bypassing FBI background checks for Trump's picks.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat who currently leads the Senate committee that will review Pete Hegseth's nomination, telling CNN that that proposition speaks volumes. No practical reason to avoid a background check, except maybe they have something to hide. Just saying. Common sense tells you when someone doesn't want that kind of vetting or check, which is done routinely, there's something to hide. And there are a lot of indications that Pete Hegseth has quite a bit to hide.

All right. Joining us now, former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Sir, always wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for being here. Let's start with this FBI background checkpoint, because there does seem to be some indication that Trump's team has been surprised by some of the things that have popped up, certainly around Pete Hegseth. There was a lot of reporting around that first sexual assault allegation that surfaced.

about him. Obviously, there's also a lot of distrust in the FBI among Trump's inner circle. Is it in their interest to let these background checks go forward so that they avoid some of this?

It is, but obviously the president wants to stretch the rules on this for some reason. I guess at some point someone will ask him that. Why is he doing that? But in Pete's case, it just doesn't feel like the whole story's out. I read Jane Mayer's article. And so if I was in the Senate, let's say I was a Republican senator and obviously want to help the president, let's go on the side of that. They want the president to have his picks.

they'd have to be concerned and they would be concerned for the president. So I think one of the things they should be doing is calling the president saying, hey, this is the tip of the iceberg. If this is what a journalist is finding, the FBI has to dig deeper because there's probably more to this story. And we're here actually to protect you, President Trump, because if this unfolds inside the Pentagon, this will be a disaster for the country and it'll reflect very badly on the administration.

And so I think that's where I think that's where the Republican senators have to go on this case. Interesting. So you obviously, I'm sure people remember, had a whirlwind tenure inside the Trump administration. You understand, you know, what it takes to get a job with Donald Trump and also what happens if he turns on you.

What do you think the president, knowing what you know about President-elect Trump, how is he going to view these kinds of allegations against Pete Hegseth? Especially in terms of, I mean, he expects a lot of loyalty from you to him. I'm not necessarily sure, and I'm curious your take on whether that loyalty runs in the other direction. Yeah.

And also, I mean, Trump himself, he's a known teetotaler. He dealt with alcoholism in his family. These kinds of reports, I'm curious what you think he might make of the behavior that's being reported. Well, you know, in addition to those things, getting hired and fired, liked and disliked by Donald Trump, I did work on the transition team in 2016. So eight years ago, I was part of that executive team.

We reviewed all these applications. At that point, the president was listening and abiding to all of the rules and protocols. He was going through the process with the FBI. We all got vetted and had background checks related to the FBI. And so I guess, again, the question is, why don't you wanna do that this time? It's there to protect you. It's also there to protect the country. But what you're getting at with Pete, I think this is a big important point for people. Pete got casted into this role.

He looks great. He speaks great. He says a lot of things about the Pentagon that the president agrees with. And so the president casted him in this role. But like a cast on a television set, it probably didn't do a deep background check. He probably didn't want to do that. But you're asking a specific point about loyalty.

President's loyal to you until he isn't just really that simple. So, Matt Gaetz, you're going to be my attorney general. Oh, you know what? You can't be the attorney general because there's 10 or 15 senators to say no. No problem. Pan Bondi is my attorney general. So so Pete's going to come up against this. Kavanaugh came up against this. Justice Kavanaugh.

I'm loyal to you until I'm not loyal to you. If you can get through the Senate confirmation hearing, I'll watch it. I'll be riveted to the set. You're drinking a lot of beer. Somehow you survive that. You're on the court. Great. Make sure you rule in my favor every time you're on the court. I mean, that's the president. And so it's very...

clear. He's been very upfront about it. I think his adversaries, I guess one of the things I don't understand about the president's adversaries, he's very upfront about everything that he's doing. And he's very, very clear about what he's doing. And then these people act shocked and surprised when he does exactly what he says he's going to do. And so he'll be he'll be loyal to Pete.

until it becomes impossible to be loyal to Pete. And that'll be incumbent upon the Republican senators. They'll have to say, hey, this is not going to work for us. And so therefore find somebody else and the president will do that. Briefly, sir, you mentioned the president's adversaries being surprised. I'm curious what you think his adversaries, how they should react and how they should treat him, how they should push back against him in a way that you think might be effective.

well again the again and i you know i was up against this in the campaign with the harris team um you you needed to push back on things and you needed to explain to people a lot of the things that he's saying about the economic situation are unrealistic and and do not work you'd be blown away casey at the number of people in the united states that think the countries pay the tariffs and that the american citizens and the consumer

do not pay the towers is just another form of taxation. The fact that the Democrats couldn't explain that to people, I think was a was a big problem for them. So go through the list of things that he says and then say to yourself, he's getting away with that. There's a lot of people that were believing what he's saying.

you've got to be masterful in responding to that. So if Pete Hegseth is not qualified to run the Pentagon, I think prima facie, I like Pete, I work with Pete, I have nothing against Pete Hegseth, but where I put him, if you and I were on the board of directors of the Pentagon, we're trying to hire a CEO, would I put him in charge of a 3 million person organization that has roughly a trillion dollars in its budget, which is the largest organization inside the 14 million people

entity known as the US government. And so my answer would be no, not that he's not a great guy, not that he couldn't do other jobs,

But that's not the right job. There's a procurement process. There's a consulting process. There's a morale process. Sure, there's a culture issue. If the president says there's a culture issue, find somebody that can help shift the culture. But remember, this is a several hundred year old organization. I just want to bring up this one point because this happened on my watch. The president tweeted that he was revoking the.

the policies related to gays in the military, the transgender policies. He put that out by tweet. I walked into the Oval Office. He said, "Well, what do you think of this?" And I looked at him, I said, "Well, did you talk to Secretary Mattis about this? Is there a plan in place

He said, well, no, this is what I want to do. I said, well, Mr. President, this started in the Clinton administration 30 years ago. They've been working on this for three decades. I don't think that that tweet is going to reverse three decades of cultural activity inside the Pentagon. He got mad at me for saying that. But you know and I know nothing really changed as a result of that tweet. And I think Pete Hegsack is in that category. I'm not on the president's team anymore. But if I was...

I would say this is like the tweet that you sent out in July of 2017, the tweet to nowhere. Yeah, the tweet to nowhere. All right, Anthony Scaramucci for us this morning, sir. Very grateful to have you. Thank you very much. There's been other tweets that haven't been to nowhere, like the ones where he calls me a major loser and stuff like that. Those are not tweets to nowhere. Well, you know what? You're still here. You lived to tell the tale. I'm still here. But if I get deported, you have to beam me in from an undisclosed location, okay? You promise? I promise.

I will be happy to have you from anywhere, anytime, sir. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. All right. Still to come here on CNN this morning, snow totals measuring more than five feet in parts of the Great Lakes region. Meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek Van Dam has more on when those folks might get a break from shoveling. Plus, just moments ago, President Biden arriving at the presidential palace in Angola. He's the first president to ever visit the sub-Saharan African country. We'll be right back.

It's a gift to Donald Trump because he's going to come here and claim that he's just doing what Joe Biden did. Bipartisan anger over President Biden's sweeping pardon of his son Hunter Biden, prompting some Democrats to warn about the precedent that it sets. That despite Trump previously suggesting he himself might be open to pardoning Hunter. Will you pardon Hunter Biden?

I wouldn't take it off the books. See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they've done to me, what they've done after me so viciously, despite what... And Hunter's a bad boy. There's no question about it. He's been a bad boy.

And of course, the president-elect is no stranger to legal problems himself. While special counsel Jack Smith dropped Trump's federal charges in the wake of his election victory, they could in theory be brought back, leading to questions about whether Trump would accept a pardon on the off chance it was offered to him. Jason, would Donald Trump accept a pardon from Joe Biden?

But at this point, I don't know what Joe Biden is going to pull. I think it's nonsense. If it's some aspect of some PR play, he might try to do it. But President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. That's why everything is disappearing. That's why he's focused on actually serving for the second term here. It's the reason why he won with such a mandate. American public saw this as nonsense. Wait, would President Trump say no to a pardon?

though? Come on. I'm not going to go and put words in the president's mouth, but everyone sees exactly what's going on. This is a complete media manipulation by Joe Biden. All right, joining us now, senior advisor to Donald Trump, Jason Miller. Jason, thanks very much for being here. It's nice to see you. Good morning.

So when the president-elect saw this news about Hunter Biden's pardon, he wrote this on his True Social. Quote,

On the subject of pardons, I'm curious to know, does President-elect Trump plan to pardon all of the people who are incarcerated because of their actions on January 6th?

Yeah, well, Casey, good morning. So let's go and unpack this a little bit. I think what we saw with Joe Biden and the Hunter pardon really goes to the heart of this politicization of our justice system, what we've seen over the past four years with Joe Biden. And that stands, quite frankly, in stark contrast to what we saw under President Trump, where President Trump did not go after any of his political opponents. That's exactly

what happened over this past four years. So let's go and just leave that there. Part of why President Trump won by such a big margin, I believe, is because he has pledged to get politics out of government, get politics out of the weaponization of our justice system, and actually have justice be blind. Now, with regard to your question regarding J6 hostages,

There's a serious issue with a number of people that are being unfairly detained, and each of those cases will be looked at individually. It's not my place to go and give some kind of blanket statement about what may or may not happen. That's going to be up to the DOJ and their review process. But people should have the rule of law be applied to them equally, regardless of their party affiliation or who they might support. So you're saying that the president might pardon some of the January 6th

people who have been convicted of crimes around January 6th, but not necessarily all of them. - Well, hold on. I want to be careful here and make sure I'm being very direct with you. President Trump has said a number of times on the campaign trail that he's going to look at each of these cases individually.

Full stop. That's what he said. There's never been a declaration of some something bigger or broader. And again, that's for something for the Department of Justice to go and deal with when President Trump takes office again, not for someone who's a spokesperson for the campaign or transition team. Because, again, the whole point here is we have to get politics out of the justice system. Justice should apply to everybody equally.

So, of course, our viewers saw coming in here what you had to say about the prospect of President-elect Trump accepting a pardon for the things he has been accused, charged with under our justice system. You said then you didn't want to put words in the president's mouth. I suppose the next step of that and considering the technicalities around how Jack Smith ultimately dropped these charges in such a way they could be brought back.

Would President-elect Trump consider pardoning himself? Well, just like I said last night when I was speaking with Laura Ingraham, this entire notion that Joe Biden is putting out there that some of the media might be trying to discuss, I think is really kind of silly because President Trump did nothing wrong. And so, again, I

I'm worried about the precedent of what Joe Biden is setting here. Again, we didn't see at the end of the Trump term any of that. What we're seeing here with Joe Biden and his family members, I think, does set a bad precedent. And again, when we take a look at this,

I think that President Trump is going to really govern and lead just as he promised with this reform agenda. And let's take a look at who he's putting in as the director. - But again, just a direct question. Is he considering, would he consider pardoning himself? Would President-elect Trump consider pardoning himself?

That would never be something that I would weigh in on. That'd be something for the legal team to discuss. And again, President Trump did nothing wrong. Has it been discussed behind the scenes? That's not something that I would have been a part of. And again, that's not something for myself to go and comment on because President Trump didn't do anything wrong. I want to get back to the point here about who President Trump is putting in to lead this reform agenda with the government to get politics out of justice. Pam Bondi, I think, will be a fantastic candidate.

Attorney General. I think she's someone who's tough, fearless, and is really going to make sure we root out some of the corruption. Kash Patel, who's been nominated to head up the FBI. This is someone who not only was a lead hostage negotiator, he was the deputy director of national intelligence. He was the chief of staff over the Department of Defense. Someone who's been a prosecutor and a public defender. Kash Patel is going to do a fantastic job as director of the FBI.

Let me ask you about another one of the nominees on the table, and that's Pete Hegseth. We learned more information about some instances in his past in The New Yorker over the past couple of days. And there also was a letter in The New York Times from his mother.

who had written in the course of his divorce questioning his character. And this is his mother who writes this, "I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man and have been for years. And as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but that is the sad, sad truth."

Was the Trump transition aware of this information about Pete Hegseth's past? And are there any concerns inside the transition about it?

Well, so when it comes to Pete Hegseth, there aren't any concerns and we feel very good about his positioning for being confirmed by the Senate. Now, we have to take the process very seriously. This is one of the rare times where you're going to hear me say that the process when it comes to this is very important. And that's because the Senate takes it so serious to go and have the one on one meetings, to have these confirmation hearings, to give senators the chance to kick the tires.

and get some of these questions answered on their own. Now, with regard to Pete, family conversations sometimes are very tough. And in the case with his mother, his mother did go and take that back and say that she was sorry for that. And I believe that Pete Hegseth is ultimately, when he has a chance to present his case, it's going to come across very clearly that he's going to be a great

person to lead the DOD and that he didn't do anything wrong. Now, again, the letter of the New Yorker or the whatever they called it, the New Yorker with their piece that they ran, that was basically just innuendo and gossip. There wasn't it was a report from the top of the Concerned Veterans of America, the organization that he led, that he was later shown the door of because of allegations of financial mismanagement, in addition to some of the more personal allegations.

But need to be clear here, again, when I say it was anyone doing gossip, it was written by a disgruntled former employee. And so, again, this was not some legal finding or something in the court of law. This was a former employee who was very much. It was extensive. It was an extensive actual report that it was used to remove him from his post. It was not a single allegation or anonymous employee who was upset.

Again, I would take issue with the characterization of that. I would say that this, again, was a disgruntled former employee full of innuendo and gossip. And Pete Hegseth, again, let's talk about Pete Hegseth's bio for a moment. Someone, a two-time Bronze Star recipient who served in combat, who's been in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one's disputing his service record. I'm not saying that. The question is, is he qualified to run the most lethal fighting force with like a trillion plus dollar

budget or not. And this report seems to suggest he might not be. No. And I would disagree with that. And again, this is why you've seen so many senators come out and say that they've been impressed by Pete Hegseth in his meetings. And they do think that he's the type of person to lead that mission under President Trump. And I want to go one other thing. Pete Hegseth is someone who's been shot at in combat. That's exactly the type of person that we want leading the DOD before any commitment is made to put our troops in harm's way.

All right. Jason Miller for us this morning. Grateful to have you on the show today. Thanks very much for coming on. Thank you. All right. Coming up on CNN this morning, there will be hell to pay. Donald Trump's threat to Hamas as he prepares to return for office. Plus, pardons on the mind after President Biden's part of his own son. One key senator suggests the president should pardon his successor.

Biden released a statement saying that the charges in Hunter's case were politically motivated and his son was selectively and unfairly prosecuted. In other words, the Biden presidency has now entered the grandpa doesn't give a damn about what you think phase.

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Seven weeks out from taking office, President-elect Trump delivering a warning to Hamas in the form of a truth social post. He is demanding that all hostages in Gaza be released before his inauguration or there will be, quote, all hell to pay, end quote. That is a shift in position from the CNN debate between President-elect Trump and President Biden in June when Trump advocated for turning Israel loose.

You got to ask him as far as Israel and Hamas. Israel is the one that wants to go. He said the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas. Actually, Israel is the one. And you should let him go and let him finish the job.

Let them finish the job. Our panel has returned. Jonah Goldberg, I mean, one of the things we've seen Trump do over and over again is say things that are basically, you know, threats of policy, right? You saw Justin Trudeau from Canada fly down to Mar-a-Lago in the wake of a tariff threat. How do you look at this dynamic in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas in terms of the incoming Trump administration? I mean, Lindsey Graham is out there basically saying Trump has said he wants this ended before he takes office. Is that going to actually impact things?

Well, I kind of think this is, first of all, I think morally it's the right thing for the president of the United States or the president-elect to say, release our freaking hostages, right? I mean, I think there's been way too much sort of muted rhetoric on that point from the State Department and the Biden White House.

Moreover, I think this is kind of a no-brainer move for Trump because by saying this, if for whatever reason hostages are released beforehand or there is some sort of deal, he will take credit for it. And then once elected, at least gives him leverage. He has so conditioned his supporters and really, frankly, his opponents to think that you don't have to take him literally when he says things, that people will just say that this is good, this is good.

you know, carry a big stick kind of diplomacy kind of thing. - Yeah, look, I met with some of the Hostages fans about two weeks ago, and I think they're understandably very desperate for some answers on this. And I think they were very curious to see how the Trump team would handle this. And they were really trying to find ways in to convey their message to him. And it sounds like it's been received. And I'm heartened to hear that because I think you're exactly right, Jonah.

A, if they get released, it's almost like Reagan 80 as he takes office. Take credit for it. And at the end of the day, who cares? Like they're home at that point. And I think it's heartening to see that. You know, what's interesting about Trump, too, is that his unpredictability and his recklessness in many things, I think does give pause to these other world leaders. So if there is a plus of Trump on the world stage other than him, obviously, yeah.

working with Russia and the likes of North Korea and what have you, his unpredictability. And folks are scared of him. You're right. Trudeau gets on an airplane. They come down here. Macron has him over to France. You know, he makes a statement about Hamas. I am sure Hamas is more scared and concerned about Donald Trump as president than Joe Biden. I think that's true. I think there may be some element of truth to that. I would push back on the idea that the Biden White House has not been working relentlessly to try to get the hostages released. I don't

that's a fair assessment of where they've been. I think they have been working night and day to try to get that done.

You know, I do think there's an element of muscularity to Trump's willingness to just always kind of take the sledgehammer to a problem rather than taking a finer screwdriver. Sometimes foreign policy actually does require nuance. I mean, you can't conduct U.S. foreign policy entirely by soundbite. But I agree broadly that there's no downside for Trump

in saying this and ultimately if it helps get the hostages home then that's a good thing all right coming up here on CNN this morning more on the pardon politics taking center stage and President Biden's final days in office will Biden give his next Pardon to his biggest rival Donald Trump there's at least one person in Washington who thinks he should plus a new twist in the case of the missing Hawaii woman why police say she vanished voluntarily

All right, 52 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. A woman who went missing from Maui last month now being declared a, quote, voluntary missing person. The 30-year-old missed her connecting flight from Los Angeles to New York back on November 8th, worrying her family. The police have now found surveillance video of her crossing over the southern border into Mexico unharmed with her luggage.

The 57-year-old Russian woman who stowed away on a Delta Airlines flight from New York to Paris last week is set to return to New York today. She will be accompanied by six U.S. Marshals. The TSA is investigating how the woman slipped past facial recognition ID scanners and got past gate agents at JFK without a ticket.

The Supreme Court weighing whether the Food and Drug Administration followed the law when it reviewed applications for certain flavored e-cigarettes. The lawsuit follows a series of denials for vaping products that officials say are marketed toward minors with special flavors like pink lemonade. He's not going to stop. Oh, man. Oh, man. Holy hell.

Yikes, a narrow escape for a milk delivery driver who got stuck on train tracks after a snowstorm in Erie, Pennsylvania. Police say he was able to get out of his truck just before the train hit and was not injured. More than five feet of snow fell on parts of the Great Lakes regions over the course of the past few days. Glad that he is okay.

All right, Joe Biden's decision to give a wide-ranging pardon to his son Hunter, further dividing many in his own party on Capitol Hill. Many Democratic lawmakers or democratically aligned independents have been speaking out, criticizing the president for the move. But Senator Joe Manchin, once a Democrat, now an independent, believes that there was a way for Joe Biden to pardon his son and give himself political cover. What I would have done differently, my recommendation as a counsel would have been, why don't you go ahead and pardon Donald Trump?

for all his charges and make it, you know, it had been, it had gone down a lot more balanced, if you will. All right. My panel has returned. Jonah Goldberg, what is Joe Manchin doing here? He's going full Joe Manchin, right? This is what Joe Manchin does as he tries to find this sort of thing. Look, I think as a sort of an academic exercise, I was saying during the break earlier, you can make a case that there's an argument for Biden to pardon Trump insofar as

It would prevent the possibility of creating a precedent for presidents being able to self-pardon themselves. It would be a very institutional move. It would make people on the left very annoyed. I'm trying to... I mean, apoplectic. Yes. I think might be the word you're looking for. I think there might be riots. And certainly in the Slack channels of the New York Times. So, like...

At the same time, I think it's too cute by half. People would just say, you're using this pardoning Trump so you can pardon your son, and it would piss off everybody. Well, I mean, Kate, you know President Biden, considering how he feels about what happened on January 6th and about our democracy, can you...

Can you imagine this as a realistic possibility? - Yeah, no, I can't see a world where he does that. I think he feels so strongly about what, you know, the threat that Donald Trump's actions around January 6th in particular, and the just continued election denialism of 2020, you know, pose to our democracy. I can't imagine a world where he would,

say that there's any reason for there to be a pardon. And I think even if the political calculation seemed like there was some sort of, you know, kind of silver lining element for him, I just, it is too fundamentally at odds with what he believes about Donald Trump for me to ever see him doing that. Let's talk for a second about this pardoning himself question around Donald Trump, because just a little bit earlier in the show, I talked to Jason Miller about this, and he

Honestly, he didn't answer the question, but he didn't rule out this possibility. Let's just watch that moment. Would President-elect Trump consider pardoning himself? That would never be something that I would weigh in on. That'd be something for the legal team to discuss. And again, President Trump did nothing wrong. Has it been discussed behind the scenes? That's not something that I would have been a part of. And again, that's not something for myself to go and comment on because President Trump didn't do anything wrong.

Matt Gorman, do you think he's going to pardon himself? I don't think so, because I think we've talked a little bit about this, too. The cases have gone pretty cold and it's not like he's going to come out, you know, after four years and on day one, you're going to be hauled in front of court. That doesn't that doesn't seem realistic. And I think also, you know, as I understand it, I'm not a lawyer, thank God. But like you do have to admit some sort of guilt.

as part of the pardon and Jason's very, very keen on saying that he did nothing wrong and that's been their tack the whole time. So I don't see that shifting in that case either.

Look, when you're Jason Miller, you don't ever make declarative statements of what you think Donald Trump's going to do because you just don't know what Donald Trump is going to do. But I do think this past week, it's worth saying is that we really did watch the final sentence of the final paragraph of the final chapter of the book that we're all so used to that told people how to run campaigns, how to act in campaigns, and how to govern. There's a new book being written right now. And unless Democrats get on board...

and try to follow that, then they're going to lose. All right. So today I will leave you with this. If you are addicted to your phone,

Aren't we all addicted to our phones? Like, if you have one, is it impossible, is it possible to not have one and not be addicted? Anyway, you might, we all might, be afflicted with what Oxford University Press has named the word of the year. It's really a phrase. The phrase is brain rot. Basically, it is a way of describing what's happening to your mind as you endlessly scroll through, quote, trillionaires.

trivial or unchallenging, end quote, material online. The Oxford University Press says use of the term spiked 230% this year. If you're, I don't know, living under a rock and a bit unsure of what we're talking about, here was SNL's recent take on what brain rot might look like. Mr. President. Yes, well, they tell me you're a tremendous success in terms of views and with regard to virgins, so it's a great honor.

There's an evacuation order in place. So this is part 55 of my beef with the Chili's on Jefferson Avenue. I've been to that Chili's. She's right, it's the worst. Oh my gosh. All right, so the Oxford University Press also released their shortlist of other words that almost made the cut. So what are those? Lure.

Romantic-y, slop, and demure. Oxford University clearly very mindful about their suggestions. And of course, everyone get that reference here at the table? Oh yeah, unfortunately. Okay, then we all have Ray Ott, right? Like that's basically the bottom line. Okay, thank you guys for being here. Very good sports. Thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now. I run a school for young women.

We're not a threat to anyone. In the new HBO original series, Dune Prophecy, it is sisterhood above all. I'm Greta Johnson. And I'm Ahmad Ali Akbar. Join us on the official Dune Prophecy podcast, where we unpack each episode with the show's creators, cast, and crew. Stream Dune Prophecy Sundays starting November 17th exclusively on Max, and you can listen to new episodes of the podcast every Sunday night.