President Trump said he could have pardoned himself when he was leaving the White House for the first time but ultimately decided not to.
Mr. Trump sat down for his first Oval Office interview of his second administration with Fox News’s Sean Hannity Wednesday night where they discussed a wide range of topics, including the list of pardons issued by former President Biden on his way out.
“I was given the option. They said, ‘Sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to pardon anybody. We didn’t do anything wrong,’” Mr. Trump said.
“We had people that suffered, they’re incredible patriots,” he said. “We had people that suffered. You had [former White House chief strategist Steve] Bannon put in jail. You had [former trade adviser] Peter Navarro put in jail. You had people that suffered and far worse than that, they’ve lost their fortunes.”
“Most of those people, they wouldn’t even have even taken a pardon,” he said. “[Mr. Biden] went around giving everybody pardons.
Mr. Biden set records for the number of pardons and commutations issued in a single term. He issued preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the House Jan. 6 committee, who he thought could potentially be targeted by Mr. Trump for revenge.
On Monday he pardoned his brothers, James and Francis Biden, his sister Valerie Biden, and their spouses just minutes before Mr. Trump was sworn in.
This all came after issuing a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, and others.
“You know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon,” Mr. Trump said.
When asked if Mr. Biden should be investigated, he said “I don’t know,” adding later that he would let Congress decide.
“I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with. I went through four years of hell,” Mr. Trump said of his own legal cases. “I spent millions of dollars in legal fees, and I won. But I did it the hard way. It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also. It is very hard to say it.”
“Joe Biden has very bad advisers. Somebody advised Joe Biden to give pardons to everybody but him,” he said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.