Trump on Fauci’s pardon: ‘He was pardoned by Biden and I respect that’

BS BRIEFING

President Trump said he “respects” former President Joe Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci, even after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Trump said the presidential pardon power is “very powerful.”
Trump also suggested the real legal questions may center on Biden’s use of an autopen, saying any challenge to Fauci’s pardon would likely depend on proving how it was authorized rather than simply reversing it.

TRUMP SAYS HE RESPECTS FAUCI PARDON—BUT SAYS THE AUTOPEN QUESTIONS REMAIN

President Donald Trump struck a measured tone Wednesday when asked about Dr. Anthony Fauci’s sweeping pardon from former President Joe Biden, saying he respects the constitutional power of presidential clemency—even as he questioned whether Biden personally authorized it.

The remarks came just hours after Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during a combative Senate hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), refusing to answer more than 100 questions about his role in the government’s COVID-19 response.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump made clear he never viewed Fauci as the driving force behind his own administration’s pandemic response.

“I inherited Fauci,” Trump said. “He was here from the 1980s.”

The president argued he frequently disagreed with Fauci’s recommendations and credited his own federalist approach of allowing governors to make many pandemic decisions.

“I would’ve had it closed down the whole country if I listened to him,” Trump said. “I went the federalist way… Generally speaking, the Republican governors did very well and the Democrat governors did not do very well.”

Trump also criticized Fauci’s shifting public guidance during the pandemic.

“He wanted to have nobody wearing masks… and then everyone had to wear five masks—as many masks as you could get,” Trump said. “He made a lot of mistakes. He wasn’t a big factor for me. He was a very big factor for Biden.”

When asked whether the Justice Department should revisit Fauci’s pardon because of questions surrounding Biden’s use of an autopen, Trump declined to say the pardon should simply be erased.

“The most powerful thing the president has… is the power of pardon,” Trump said. “He was pardoned by Biden and I respect that. I know how powerful it is.”

Trump added that challenging a pardon would require substantial evidence about how it was issued.

“I’ve heard that you have to have a lot of proof,” he said. “You need to have letters… the person operating the autopen has to know exactly what it’s all about.”

Earlier in the day, Trump was also asked why Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment despite already receiving a broad pardon. “Well look, I’ve never been a big fan of Fauci,” Trump replied. “Why he did that was very simple—his lawyer told him to.”

Trump stopped short of second-guessing the legal strategy. “I don’t know if he would’ve been better off not doing it,” he said. “There were a lot of questions I guess he could’ve answered, and some maybe he didn’t feel comfortable answering.”

The hearing itself quickly became one of Washington’s biggest political stories of the week.

Fauci accused Chairman Rand Paul of having an “unhinged obsession” with him before invoking the Fifth Amendment almost immediately after his opening statement. Paul has since announced plans to pursue a Senate contempt vote despite Fauci’s pardon, arguing Congress still has an oversight responsibility.

The hearing followed the release of more than 1,100 pages of Fauci’s pandemic-era diaries by Paul. The journals have generated days of headlines after revealing Fauci’s candid opinions about President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Elon Musk, Fox News personalities and prominent journalists he interacted with throughout the pandemic.

DBS WIRE SOURCES