“It’s Possible Joe Biden Pardoned Himself”, CNN Host Speculates During Interview About Possible ‘Secret Pardon’

Joe Biden pardoned almost everyone he knows — friends and family — except, as President Trump recently mentioned with a laugh, he forgot to pardon himself.

Or… did he?

In an interview with New York Times correspondent (and known Trump-hater) Maggie Haberman, a strange idea was suddenly floated.

What if Joe Biden DID pardon himself, but kept it secret?

CNN turns on Biden as top anchor makes stunning claim about the one pardon he could be keeping secret https://t.co/cVCWJ5sSMB pic.twitter.com/ln7epk8awG

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 25, 2025

That was the odd musing of CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Odd in the sense that literally nobody is talking about anything remotely resembling a ‘secret pardon’, but suddenly Jake Tapper floats it as if it’s a very real, very plausible possibility.

Very strange, if you ask me.

If you’ll remember, Biden was asked point blank just a couple of weeks ago whether he had considered issuing a self-pardon:

Not surprisingly, Biden acted confused by the question.

I would expect nothing less from the former president, regardless of whether it was because he had truly not contemplated the idea, or simply because he wasn’t ABLE to cognitively contemplate the idea, or even simply because he was lying.

I am confident that one of those possibilities — if not all of them — are surely true.

Here’s the clip from the interview that is stirring up questions because of Tapper’s seemingly out-of-nowhere musings:

WATCH: CNN’s Jake Tapper: “It’s always possible for a President to pardon somebody and not announce it. It’s possible Joe Biden pardoned himself and we just don’t know about it. Who knows? Joe Biden set a lot of precedents on his way out the door.” pic.twitter.com/c0UQ42Q7iO

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) January 26, 2025

The interview in question happened on Saturday.

CNN’s Tapper and the NYT’s Haberman were imagining the possibility that President Trump might want ‘retribution’ against his enemies, according to a report in The Daily Mail:

CNN anchor Jake Tapper speculated that Joe Biden may have secretly pardoned himself in a telling moment about the network’s approach to the new Trump administration.

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Tapper made the admission to New York Times correspondent and frequent Trump-critic Maggie Haberman on Saturday, as the two discussed the president’s promises of ‘retribution’ against his political enemies.

He played a segment of Trump’s Thursday night interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity where the president said ‘the sad thing is (Biden) didn’t give himself a pardon.’

Tapper went on to speculate that ‘it is always possible for a president to pardon somebody and not announce it’, meaning Biden may have ‘pardoned himself and we just don’t know about it.’

The issue of ‘secret’ presidential pardons came under the spotlight four years ago after Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden, as he also issued a number of pardons to allies – but notably not to himself or any family members.

It was speculated at the time that Trump could have issued secret pardons, which are technically possible but have never been documented in US history.

The clause in the constitution that grants presidential pardoning powers does not explicitly prevent them from being secret.

If you think Biden’s confused reaction to being asked if he had given any thought to pardoning himself in the earlier video was rock solid evidence that he would never do such a thing — you’re kidding yourself.

He swore up and down for years that he would NEVER pardon Hunter, but would allow the justice system to run its course… and we saw how that turned out.

Check out this video of Biden in 2020 about a month before taking office.

He absolutely attacks President Trump over a mere RUMOR that he might issue the infamous “preemptive pardon” for himself and his family — which was a completely fabricated lie that played good on TV:

Biden’s Pardon Flip Flop: “You're not going to see me do that.” In December of 2020, Jake Tapper asks President-elect Biden about the rumor that Trump may issue some preemptive pardons before leaving office. Must have forgotten this little nugget of poo. pic.twitter.com/1Y4CUTFihj

— John Cremeans USA (@JohnCremeansUSA) January 20, 2025

As we know, President Trump never issued a ‘preemptive pardon’ to anyone.

And Biden issued preemptive pardons to virtually everyone, because he knew most of those people were going to get investigated… and the outcomes were likely to be jail time for many unless they had the presidential get-out-of-jail-free card to protect them.

During the interview with Haberman, Tapper played a section of video showing President Trump’s recent interview with Hannity, including the moment when Trump laughs at the fact that Biden didn’t pardon himself, according to an article in Mediaite:

In an interview on Fox News Channel’s Hannity, Trump hinted that former President Joe Biden should be targeted, noting “he didn’t give himself a pardon” and repeatedly suggesting to Sean Hannity that an investigation into Biden and others is warranted.

After playing a bit of that Hannity interview, Haberman noted that the Supreme Court immunity decision might not apply to Biden, and Tapper said that could be a moot point.

TAPPER: President Trump was also asked about these last minute pardons by his predecessor, Joe Biden, and he had this note. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is he didn’t give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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TAPPER: So I don’t know that he needed to, Mr. Biden, given the fact that there was this expansive immunity ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court about Trump that now applies to Biden.

But do you think Trump’s Department of Justice will investigate Biden?

HABERMAN: It remains — again, remains to be seen, Jake. I will say that, you know, Trump is not the only person who has expressed a lot of outrage about some of those preemptive pardons, especially the ones for President Biden’s own family members. You know, preemptive pardons, not what happened with Hunter Biden. A lot of former Biden officials have been pretty surprised by it from folks I’ve been talking to.

But Trump seemed to be unless I was misunderstanding him, talking about activities that were taken before Biden was in office. You are correct. Biden has the same broad protection from the Supreme Court for official acts as president that President Trump now has that other presidents going forward will have, although that may be challenged going forward, depending on the presidency.

He seemed to be referring to moneymaking efforts by the Biden family prior to the presidency, and we’ll see whether that turns into an investigation of some kind.

TAPPER: Yeah, the influence peddling by Hunter and James and others. And although it is possible, we don’t know, but it is always possible for a president to pardon somebody and not announce it.

HABERMAN: That’s true. That’s true. TAPPER: I mean, so its possible Joe Biden pardoned himself and we just don’t know about it. Who knows? Joe Biden said a lot of precedents on his way out the door.

In a strange twist of fate, I tend to agree with Tapper.

Not only is it possible that Biden issued himself a ‘secret pardon’, but I consider it to be PLAUSIBLE as well — if not all together likely.

While researching this story, I remembered an odd bit of information I came across not long ago that may hint at some relevant truth to this story.

DEVELOPING: Hunter Biden is missing from the Justice Dept's pardon database in spite of the "full and unconditional pardon" his father the POTUS granted him last month. His clemency does not appear in the case files and can only be accessed thru the FOIA Library …developing …

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 15, 2025

I attempted to research that story, but later research showed there had been no further information to report.

Although apparently — and strangely — the pardon that Joe Biden issued to his son does not appear in the publicly searchable database of presidential pardons.

At the time I wondered if this was the tip of an iceberg meant to keep some unknown bit of information secret.

Now, I am wondering that again.

Is it possible that Joe Biden did indeed issue himself a pardon, and kept it secret partially by keeping Hunter’s pardon somewhat hidden, since one referenced the other?

That is pure speculation on my part, but something does seem strangely off about this situation.

Whether it has to do with a potential ‘secret pardon’ remains to be seen.  But as wild as that sounds, I have learned not to presume either propriety or reasonable actions on the part of Joe Biden — so at this point, who knows what the truth of the matter really is.

Joe Biden could very well have pardoned himself, and simply buried it behind a wall of classified information.

Even more reason to INVESTIGATE JOE BIDEN… and find out.