'You should find out': Trump press secretary clashes with CNN reporter over Biden pardons
On his first night back in the White House, President Donald Trump issued controversial pardons for more than 1500 January 6, 2021 defendants — including those sent to prison for violently attacking police officers that day. Now, Trump is saying that pardons issued by former President Joe Biden near the end of his presidency should be invalidated — a claim that is drawing widespread criticism from legal experts, who are reminding Trump that Biden had every right to issue those pardons whether one agrees with them or not.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins tackled the issue during a Monday afternoon, March 17 news conference hosted by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
When Collins brought up the legal and constitutional issues that Trump's claims are raising, Leavitt tried to defend Trump by attacking Biden and claiming he was cognitively impaired when the pardons were issued.
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Collins asked Leavitt, "Have attorneys here at the White House told President Trump that he has the legal authority to undo a pardon simply because it was signed by autopen, as he said?"
Leavitt responded, "The president was begging the question that I think a lot of journalists in this room should be asking about whether or not the former president of the United States — who I think we can all finally agree was cognitively impaired, I know it took people some time to finally admit that, but we all know that to be true, as evidenced by his disastrous debate performance against president trump during the campaign. I digress on that. But the president was raising the point that did the president even know about these pardons? Was his legal signature used without his consent or knowledge?"
But Collins pushed back against the conspiracy theory Leavitt was promoting, asking if she had any evidence that Biden didn't have cognitive knowledge of pardons he signed. And Leavitt gave an evasive answer, saying, "You're a reporter, you should find out."
Collins also grilled Leavitt about a federal judge halting Trump's deportations, asking if the Trump White House "feels a need" to "comply with" the judge's verbal order. And Leavitt responded, "Well, there's actually questions about whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a legal order."
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