Pod Save America - Can Biden Stop Trump’s Revenge Tour?

The White House considers preemptive pardons for the people Donald Trump and his allies have promised to target, setting off a debate among Democrats. Jon and Dan talk through the pros and cons of the move, who Biden could consider if he does move forward, and what Trump or other presidents might do in the future as a result. Then, veteran Democratic strategist Steve Schale talks with Dan about what led to the party's collapse in his home state of Florida, and why he's worried that the damage may spread.

Duration: 1h 9m
Broadcast on: 06 Dec 2024
Audio Format: other

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Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm John Fabra. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, House Democrats make moves to overthrow the gerontocracy. We're getting more information about who the swing voters were in the 2024 election, the kind of information they're getting and how Trump won them over. Then we get to hear Dan's conversation with our friend Steve Shale, a Democratic strategist and campaign vet in Florida about how we got into such a deep hole there, especially with Latino voters and why he's worried that what happened to Democrats in Florida may not stay there. But first, you heard it on Pod Save America first. On Tuesday's show, Tommy and I both mentioned that it might be a good idea for Biden to issue preemptive pardons for people who Trump and his allies have said they want to prosecute, which according to Politico's Jonathan Martin, the White House is now considering. You're welcome, Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney.

Just kidding. We were not even close to the first that raised that and the White House has been working on it a while. Apparently, according to J. Mart, he says that there has been a quote vigorous internal debate about this among a small group of the most senior White House aides, including the White House counsel and the chief of staff. Though the president himself has not yet been part of the discussions, the news has set off a debate among Democrats over whether it's wise to issue preemptive blanket pardons. Congressman Brendan Boyle, who's a close ally of Biden, said that Trump's decision to put Cash Patel in charge of the FBI means that prosecuting his enemies is, quote, no hypothetical threat and urge the president to give the pardons, but shift himself, who would presumably be on the list, urge Biden not to do it, arguing that it would seem defensive and unnecessary. Well, what do we think? Jim Jordan was actually asked about this. The idea of a preemptive pardon. We're going to listen to what he said. Then we're going to listen to what Donald Trump says about what he plans to do. Democrats are now asking Joe Biden for a preemptive pardon, okay, of Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, and Tony Fauci. Well, what is this all about preemptive pardons for heaven's sake? Well, this is ridiculous. Donald Trump has never been about retribution. Already hundreds of people have been murdered because of her action at the border, and thousands more will follow in rapid succession. She should be impeached and prosecuted for her actions. Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for that. If we win and when we win, we're going to prosecute people that cheat on this election. And if we can, we'll go back to the last one, too,

if we're allowed. What do you think you think they're going to be allowed? All right. What do you think of this, pros and cons of blanket preemptive pardons from President Biden on his way out the door? Let me start with the one con, which I give zero fucks about, which is the idea that somehow doing this breaks a norm or makes it easier for Trump to do what he wants to do in he leaves office. Trump's going to do what Trump wants to do no matter whether Biden does preemptive pardons or not Trump. If he wants to do the same thing, he'll do the same thing for his people. We should stop reverse engineering our ideas around our actions around things Trump may or may not do. That is stupid. The pros here are pretty clear Donald Trump campaign don't prosecuting his political opponents. He picks them to head the FBI who published a literal enemies list of people to prosecute. Like it's not there's no subtlety happening here and what an appendix. You know, this is like in the back of the book.

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