CNN host John Berman said Tuesday that it was “a good night to be a corrupt Republican” after President Trump announced his latest batch of pardons.
“It’s a good night to be a corrupt Republican congressman or a confessed liar from the Russia probe or a convicted murderer of Iraqi civilians,” Berman said, according to a clip published by HuffPost.
Trump granted clemency to three former Republican congressmen, two people charged in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and four former Blackwater security contractors convicted over their roles in killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007.
It’s possible that Trump could issue more pardons in his remaining days in office. The New York Times has reported that the president has looked into granting pardons to his family, and there’s still speculation that he might try to pardon himself.
Later in the show, CNN White House correspondent Pamela Brown said that Tuesday’s pardons of George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, could be seen as Trump “returning the favor” for loyalty in the Russia probe.
Brown also pointed out that many of those on Tuesday’s list were hailed as heroes by right-wing media.
“We know the president is unorthodox in the way he’s gone about pardons,” Brown said. “He’s watched media, Fox News [and] other outlets to get ideas about who he should pardon, along with members of Congress and his own attorney Rudy Giuliani and many others.”