Copyright Newsweek
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s criticism of former President Joe Biden is coming back to haunt the Republican Party as President Donald Trump indicated he forgot who he pardoned in an interview on 60 Minutes. "I don’t know anything about it," Johnson said, referring to Trump's words, in a Q&A with reporters Monday. "I didn’t see the interview. You have to ask the president about that." Newsweek has reached out to Johnson for comment via email. Why It Matters Last week, Johnson publicly questioned the validity of Biden’s pardons after the House GOP alleged that Biden and his inner circle hid signs of his worsening mental state during the presidency. However, now Trump has said he couldn't remember one of his own pardons, the words could be used against the Republican Party. What To Know Johnson called out Biden’s pardons of various criminals as questionable given the House GOP’s allegations of hiding his mental decline. "It sounds like a terrible novel or something, but this is reality," Johnson said. "And so the pardons, for example, he pardoned categories of violent criminals and turned them loose on the streets, and he didn't even know who. He didn't even know what the categories were, apparently, much less the individual people, that he pardoned." Johnson added that the pardons were "invalid on their face." However, in a new interview with 60 Minutes, Trump said he did not know Changpeng Zhao, the cryptocurrency billionaire he pardoned last month. When asked why he had pardoned Zhao, who pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering, Trump said, "I don’t know who he is." William F. Hall, adjunct Professor of Political Science and business at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, told Newsweek: "House Speaker Mike Johnson's previous denigrating comments, specifically targeting forgetfulness on the part of, former President Joe Biden's memory about pardons he had granted, were both, insensitive and misguided, especially in view of the fact that, very recently, on the 60 Minutes TV Program, current President Donald Trump also, freely and openly, admitted that he too, didn't know he had pardoned a crypto billionaire." What People Are Saying House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a Q&A with reporters Monday: "I don’t know anything about it. I didn’t see the interview. You have to ask the president about that." President Donald Trump told reporters while commenting on Changpeng Zhao’s pardon: "Let me just tell you that he was somebody that, as I was told—I don’t know him. I don’t believe I’ve ever met him. … He had a lot of support, and they said that what he did is not even a crime. It wasn’t a crime, that he was persecuted by the Biden administration. And so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people." William F. Hall, adjunct Professor of Political Science and business at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, told Newsweek: "The manner in which politicians from both major political parties have chosen to use highly denigrating and negative language and tactics, to insult one another, is both very disheartening as well as in my view extremely juvenile. It additionally, from my perspective, also sends an important message, that often the bearer of such nonsensical, inappropriate and infantile remarks and comments in reality are nonserious politicians and public officials, who are far more focused and interested in attempting to score points for comedic performance, rather than for accomplishing and achieving the true objectives and goals of the mission that ultimately the voters and the American public elected them to achieve." What Happens Next
