On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) put fill-in host Peter Alexander on the spot regarding a question for President Joe Biden about a pardon for his son Hunter Biden.
Cotton speculated the elder Biden would pardon his son after the November presidential election but asked Alexander to ask Joe Biden if he would commit to not pardoning his son.
Alexander did not respond to the question.
Partial transcript as follows:
ALEXANDER: And when you talk about what Joe Biden’s Department of Justice has done, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is also, right now, prosecuting cases against Democrats, Robert Menendez, the Democrat of New Jersey; Henry Cuellar, the Democratic representative from Texas; and Hunter Biden. The case against Hunter Biden on those gun charges begins tomorrow.
Let me ask you about what we’ve heard from former President Trump. At the first official event of this re-election campaign, Donald Trump proclaimed “I am your retribution.” He talks about seeking revenge against his political enemies and says he will appoint a special prosecutor to, in his words, “go after Joe Biden and his family.”
If it’s so objectionable for the justice system to be, as you say, weaponized against Donald Trump, why is it acceptable for Donald Trump to campaign on weaponizing the DOJ against Joe Biden?
COTTON: Well — well, first off, Peter, let me just go back to the points you made about prosecuting certain Democrats like Bob Menendez and Henry Cuellar. I’ve noticed that Joe Biden’s department of Justice tends to target the Democrats that are critical of Joe Biden. Bob Menendez criticizes him for his weak Iran policies.
Henry Cuellar…
ALEXANDER: So he’s weaponizing it against people that don’t like him?
COTTON: Henry Cuellar criticizes the president’s immigration policy. They’re investigating the mayor of New York because he has criticized Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
ALEXANDER: How about his own son, Hunter Biden?
The case begins tomorrow.
COTTON: Hunter — Hunter Biden is guilty of so many crimes, you can barely even keep track of them, unlike Donald Trump, for whom they never even revealed the alleged crime that he supposedly tried to cover up.
ALEXANDER: So, just to be clear, though, if he was weaponizing the Justice Department, wouldn’t he want to keep any case away from his own son?
COTTON: He was forced — his own Justice Department tried to rig a settlement. They were forced by a judge asking questions of the prosecutor and Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys…
ALEXANDER: But wouldn’t he get rid of it completely?
COTTON: … who had colluded.
ALEXANDER: Why would he weaponize it against his own son and just get rid of the case all together, by your argument?
COTTON: Well, because he’s going to pardon his own son after the election.
And that’s what — that’s what you should ask to Joe Biden at the White House some time, is do you commit to not pardon Hunter Biden after the election?
ALEXANDER: So let me go back — let me go back, Senator, to my initial question, which is, if it’s so objectionable for the justice system to, as you say, to be weaponized by Joe Biden against Donald Trump, why is it appropriate for Donald Trump to campaign on weaponizing it against Joe Biden?
COTTON: Donald Trump has said that his so-called retribution will be success, success at the ballot box…
ALEXANDER: Well, he also said an eye for an eye.
(CROSSTALK)
COTTON: … peace and prosperity.
In 2016, when so many people insisted that Hillary Clinton should face criminal charges for doing exactly what Donald Trump was wrongly accused of doing, which is mischaracterizing legal expenses as something else — remember, she paid for the dirty Russian dossier that characterizes legal expenses. She paid a fine to the FEC. Donald Trump specifically said he would not prosecute Hillary Clinton because that’s not what we do in America.
What the Democrats have done in New York is like something that would happen in Pakistan or Brazil. It’s something that America would sanction another country for, for engaging in election interference.
ALEXANDER: Sir, he campaigned on locking up Hillary Clinton.
COTTON: And he said, after the election, that that’s not what we do in America. If New York was…
ALEXANDER: But he campaigned on it, and then after said he wouldn’t do it. I guess — let’s get back to the question about…
COTTON: Peter — Peter, if New York was a foreign country, America would sanction them for trying to target the weaponization of the legal system, their political opponents and rigging election outcomes.
ALEXANDER: Are you OK, then, with Donald Trump saying he will weaponize the DOJ against Joe Biden?
COTTON: He has said repeatedly that this should never happen. It shouldn’t happen to him. It shouldn’t happen to his…
ALEXANDER: But he’s campaigning on that very basis.
(CROSSTALK)
COTTON: Peter, we’ve been down this road before. In 2016 people called for Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted. She probably deserved it. But Donald Trump said that’s not what we do in America to someone who loses an election like Hillary Clinton did.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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