Donald Trump’s speech in Miami was ostensibly about the economy, but as is usually the case, the president took the opportunity to do what he does at practically all of his events: He smeared Joe Biden.
As part of his latest “autopen” harangue, the Republican claimed that his immediate Democratic predecessor gave “thousands” of pardons, but he “had no idea” what was happening. “Therefore,” Trump said, “all those pardons are void.”
The incumbent president added, “You have the opposite right now. I don’t want to be braggadocious, but you have the exact — I know exactly what’s happened.”
For now, let’s put aside that there’s literally no evidence of the Biden White House having approved pardons without the then-president’s knowledge. Let’s also not dwell on the fact that Trump lacks the authority to invalidate his predecessor’s pardons.
What I found more interesting was Trump claiming that he, unlike Biden, knows “exactly” what’s going on when it comes to pardons. Because the president himself has offered some very direct comments to the contrary.
In March, after Trump pardoned one of his donors, he was pressed for an explanation. He appeared clueless: He wasn’t familiar with the details, the president said, but “they” told him that the criminal had been treated unfairly, which was good enough for him to sign a pardon.
More recently, Trump signed one of the more scandalous pardons of his presidency (to date), extending clemency to Changpeng Zhao, founder of the crypto exchange Binance, who helped finance the president’s stablecoin and put money in the Trump family’s pockets. Just hours later, a reporter asked the Republican why he’d taken such a step.
He replied, “I don’t know.”
A week after that, during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” he was again asked why he signed the pardon. “I don’t know who he is,” Trump replied, adding, “Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about it because I’m too busy. I know nothing about the guy.”
So which is it? Is Trump occasionally clueless about his own pardons, or does he “know exactly what’s happened”?
The answer matters — because if Trump was lying about his ignorance regarding to Zhao pardon, that makes the story worse. If not, the White House owes the public an explanation about who is responsible for getting President Bystander to sign it.