Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘Total Disgrace’: Scott Jennings, Former Harris Aide Tussle Over Hunter Biden Pardon

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CNN contributor Scott Jennings clashed with a former aide to Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday after he called President Joe Biden’s pardoning of Hunter Biden a “total disgrace.”

Biden announced the pardon in a statement released by the White House on Dec.1, alleging that Hunter had been “singled out” while alleging “political opponents” were seeking to “break” both him and his son in the courts. Jamal Simmons, a former communications director for Harris, claimed on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the pardon was “about the future” during a back-and-forth with Jennings and “The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin.

“It was a total disgrace. He’s leaving office in disgrace because of this pardon and it’s not just the pardon, it‘s the lying,” Jennings said. “[Biden] lied to the American people. According to NBC News, he and his top aides hatched a plan to lie to the American people. And then this week, he didn’t even have the guts to go out to the White House podium and take questions about it. He sent Karine Jean-Pierre out there, who was also a part of the lying, and then she continued to gaslight the American people and the media.”

“The American people ought to be pissed, but the media the people who cover this White House, ought to be absolutely livid at the gaslighting. And then the continued gaslighting and the hostility towards the idea of transparency,” Jennings continued. “This is a monumental disgrace. You think 38, 39% job approval is low? Wait until we test him as he leaves office. He’s going out of office as one of the least liked and most divisive presidents we’ve ever had.”

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After Farah Griffin criticized the language in Biden’s statement announcing the pardon, comparing it to criticisms President-elect Donald Trump made of the Department of Justice during efforts to prosecute him, Simmons argued that Trump justified Biden’s choice.

“Let’s not get too… self-righteous about this, right? If you walk into a boxing match and you find out the person you‘re fighting is an MMA fighter, sooner or later you got to take the gloves off and get into the fight,” Simmons claimed. “I think what they have discovered in the White House is that everyone else is playing by these very pristine rules, while Trump is doing whatever he wants to do, whatever the heck he wants.”

“The statement wasn’t, ‘I fear that Kash Patel will come after my son,’” Farah Griffin responded. “It was, ‘This was a essentially politicized department.’”

Jennings then pressed Simmons about whether he believed the Justice Department was corrupt.

“He said his own Department of Justice is corrupt,” Jennings said, “He said, he said, the Department of Justice is corrupt. Is it? Is it?”

“You can talk about the past if you want. I’m talking about the future,” Simmons claimed. “And the question is are you going to leave, are you going to leave all of your people, your family and your staff up to the place where Donald Trump and his henchmen can go after them in a political and in a political way at the Justice Department?”

Trump nominated former Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi of Florida to be attorney general and former Trump administration official Kash Patel to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.