Trump's new defense of 'scandalous' pardon is 'worse' than his lying: analysis

President Donald Trump feigned ignorance after granting clemency to Changpeng Zhao, founder of a crypto company that, according to MSNBC's Steve Benen, "helped finance the president’s stablecoin and put money in the Trump family’s pockets."

Benen says that this reaction is "worse" than Trump lying.

When asked by a reporter about his pardon of Binance founder Zhao, Trump replied, "I don't know."

In a "60 Minutes" interview Sunday with Norah O'Donnell, Trump doubled down on that reply, telling her, "I don't know who he is."

"After Trump rambled for a while, the CBS News correspondent reminded Trump that Zhao 'pled guilty to anti-money laundering laws,' two years before he helped facilitate a multi-billion-dollar deal for Trump’s family business," Benen notes.

“How do you address the appearance of pay for play?” O'Donnell asked.

“Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’m too busy,” Trump replied, adding, “I know nothing about the guy.”

While Benen notes that "it's possible" that Trump was "simply lying," he may also have been actually telling the truth for a change.

" Perhaps White House officials simply put a document in front of him, told him to sign it, and because he’s a disengaged, bystander president with a limited understanding of events unfolding around him, he did as his aides recommended," Benen says.

Neither explanation, Benen notes, "is especially encouraging," especially since Trump and "much of the Republican party is heavily invested in the idea that Joe Biden was so impaired during the Democrat’s presidency that he signed pardons — or more to the point, used an autopen to sign pardons — without knowing anything about the beneficiary of the clemency."

Trump discussed this in Sunday's "60 Minutes" interview, in fact, saying, "Biden didn’t have a clue. He illegally used, as you know, a machine, the autopen in order to give pardons to people.”

"The smear is ugly and baseless, but it’s also become political dilemma of sorts for the president slandering his predecessor," Benen says. "On the one hand, Trump wants the public to believe Biden didn’t know whom he was pardoning. On the other, Trump also wants the public to believe that he pardoned Zhao, despite having no idea who he is."

The Republicans have yet to come up with a coherent excuse for this latest gaffe, Benen notes.

"The Republican and his team have had plenty of time to work out a coherent set of talking points on this. The fact that they’ve failed speaks volumes," he says.