An MSNBC analyst claimed president Joe Biden is using his last days in the White House to do anything he can to ‘mitigate the damage’ of a Donald Trump presidency.
Political consultant Matthew Dowd made the comments on Thursday’s episode of MSNBC Reports after host Richard Lu asked him how he thought Biden was handling his last days as president.
‘I think he’s what he’s trying to do is trying to corner Donald Trump and sort of box him in so he can do…
‘I think the Biden administration and the president is trying to prevent Donald Trump from doing as much damage as he possibly can could do,’ Dowd replied.
‘Which he could do a lot after becoming president. But I think Joe Biden is trying to box him in on this.’
As part of his last moves as president, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.
He took a political jab at Trump, saying, ‘In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.’
‘Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,’ Biden’s statement said.
Political consultant Matthew Dowd claimed president Joe Biden is using his last days in the White House to do anything he can to ‘mitigate the damage’ of a Donald Trump presidency
As part of his last moves as president, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row
‘But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.’
Dowd defended Biden’s move, saying, ‘Donald Trump doesn’t understand the difference between a commutation and a pardon.’
Meanwhile a Trump spokesperson called the decision ‘abhorrent.’
‘These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones,’ said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung.
‘President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people.’
The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term.
But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.
The announcement about federal executions also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington.
A Trump spokesperson called Biden’s decision on federal executions ‘abhorrent’
The announcement about federal executions also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges
The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly targeted by Trump’s second administration.
On the campaign trail, Trump made no secret of his desire to seek revenge on those who prosecuted him or crossed him.
Trump has talked about ‘enemies from within’ and circulated social media posts that call for the jailing of Biden, Harris, former Vice President Mike Pence and Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer.
He also zeroed in on former Rep. Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican who campaigned for Harris and helped investigate January 6, and he promoted a social media post that suggested he wanted military tribunals for supposed treason.
Kash Patel, whom Trump has announced as his nominee to be director of the FBI, has listed dozens of former government officials he wanted to ‘come after.’
Richard Painter, a Trump critic who served as the top White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said he was reluctantly in support of having Biden issue sweeping pardons to people who could be targeted by Trump’s administration. He said he hoped that would ‘clean the slate’ for the incoming president and encourage him to focus on governing, not on punishing his political allies.
‘It’s not an ideal situation at all,’ Painter said. ‘We have a whole lot of bad options confronting us at this point.’
