President Joe Biden confirmed he has yet to make a decision on whether to grant preemptive pardons to Trump foes, including former Rep. Liz Cheney and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The 82-year-old president spoke with USA Today’s Susan Page who asked him where he stood on the issue.
Politico reported this last month that White House aides discussed the pardon but had yet to make their pitch to the president.
Among those mentioned in the story were Cheney – a leading anti-Trump Republican – Fauci and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who has since said he does not want to be pardoned.
“Well, no, I haven’t,” Biden responded when Page asked if he had made a decision. “Well, it kind of depends on who he puts in what positions,” the president also said.
Trump has appointed former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to head the Justice Department after former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from the confirmation process ahead of the release of a House Ethics Committee investigation into the Florida lawmaker.
The newly elected president has chosen Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
Patel has said he would go after Trump critics.
President Joe Biden (right) told USA Today in a new interview that he has yet to make a decision on whether to grant preemptive pardons to Trump foes, including former Rep. Liz Cheney (left). He awarded Cheney the Presidential Citizens Medal at a ceremony on January 2
Fauci waves to the driver who is standing across the street and is part of security
Fauci is seen with what appears to be his downsized security team
Biden said he begged Trump during their post-election meeting at the White House not to go after his political enemies.
‘I was very honest with Trump when he was elected. I immediately invited him to the White House,” Biden said. “I spent two hours with him.”
Biden then claimed that Trump had been “very complimentary about some of the economic things I had done” and told the Democrat he had a “good record” — the opposite of what the Republican told his supporters during the campaign.
“I tried to make it clear that that wasn’t necessary, and it was counterintuitive to his interest in going back and trying to settle scores,” the president said.
Page asked Biden if Trump said what he would do.
“Well, he didn’t,” the president responded. “But he didn’t say, ‘No, I’m going to…’ You know. He didn’t reinforce it. He just listened.”
Biden then described a scenario in which he could move forward with a preemptive pardon but did so off the record, with that portion of the interview transcript redacted.
He also said more traditional clemency measures were still being considered.
Dr. Anthony Fauci pictured himself talking to a member of his security team outside his DC home and before waving goodbye as he entered his home.
Politico reported last month that Biden aides were discussing preemptive pardons for a number of people in President-elect Donald Trump’s crosshairs, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led both the Trump and Biden COVID-19 responses.
“But there are other parties that we’re following to determine that, correcting some of the difference between powder and cocaine, things like that,” Biden said.
The president has just 12 days left to make decisions on pardons.
He has been in Los Angeles since Monday and his official schedule has been canceled due to the terrible wildfires raging through parts of the area.
Biden will return to Washington, D.C. later Wednesday to attend President Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The president will then depart for Rome for his final official visit to Pope Francis.
Fauci will no longer receive taxpayer-funded security details and SUVs after the US Marshals Service quietly dropped his nearly two-year, $15 million deal.
Despite retiring from his $480,000-a-year government job in December 2022, the nation’s top COVID doctor was on security detail for nearly two years.
During a publicity tour to promote his new book this summer, the 83-year-old Fauci said he was “afraid deep down that there’s a possibility that someone is going to kill me.”
Dr. Fauci, who is worth an estimated $11 million, was constantly surrounded by U.S. Marshals at the time, whether he was at home or going to TV studios to film interviews.
A private security guard leaves the Fauci residence after an outing
Fauci’s former detail on the street outside his home. Republican Senator Rand Paul said only Cabinet members would receive the same level of protection
This cost taxpayers a total of $15 million memorandum of understanding between the US Marshals and the Department of Health and Human Services obtained by DailyMail.com first revealed.
This taxpayer-funded security arrangement quietly ended on September 30, 2024, the documents show, days before the election.
Trump teased during his campaign that he would slim down the “bloated” federal government that spends billions on unnecessary waste, and Fauci’s details would no doubt be high on that list.
He created a new agency, DOGE, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to do just that.
Exclusive photos taken of Fauci at his home last weekend confirm that his taxpayer-funded department appears to have been disbanded.