Also receiving clemency, wrappers lil wayne and kodak black, prosecuted on federal weapons offenses. The president , however, not expected to issue pardons for himself or members of his family, or his personal attorney, rudy giuliani. The former new york city mayor was at the forefront of unsuccessful efforts to get the results of the 2020 president ial election election overturned. He also rallied with Trump Supporters just before they storm the cat Capitol Building on january 6th. The possibility of pardons for the insurgents had reportedly been discussed but almost everyone involved in those discussions aggressively advised the president not to. Trump has already pardoned a slew of longtime associates and supporters, they include his former Campaign Chairman paul manafort, also charles kushner, the father of his soninlaw, and his longtime friend and advisor, roger stone. Also, his former National Security advisor, michael flynn, and also on the list, four former blackwater guards who were convicted of killing 14 iraqi civilians. We are joined now on the phone by brad blakeman, former Deputy Assistant to president george w. Bush. Brad, any names on the list surprising to you . No, they really arent. Look, president ial pardons and commutations and sentences are controversial by their very nature. If we look back at history, barack obama, in his eight years, parted 148 and gave clemency to over a thousand. George bush, george w. Bush, 189 pardoned 11 clemencys and commutations, and bill clinton, 396 pardons, 61 commutations. You look, historical terms, donald trump falls way short of his predecessor, in either granting pardons or commutation of sentences. Everyone will have their own opinion. The president has the ultimate power, and, you know, in a weeks time, nobody will even remember this. Bill clinton pardoned a member of his family, his brother, roger, for drug offenses. If we go back in history, we will see, as president leave office, they have a history of either granting or giving commutations of sentences to very controversial figures. Marianne brad, also, wanted to talk about the fact that it sounds like he was strongly discouraged from pardoning himself or anyone in his family. Talk about that, and why that is important, something that he may be should have done. Well, the reason being, when you grant a pardon, the person receiving it is basically admitting theyve done something wrong. The question is, what has the president , if you were to do that, having to admit to . That he did wrong in order to receive a pardon. So, it is a doubleedged sword. You know, its never been done before. It couldve been challenged. The ultimate authority of the president it would set a dangerous precedent if you were to do it. I think he made the right choice, he not only himself, but his family. I dont think theres any need to, and i think that is what the lawyers argued to the president , that there is no need, so why do it . Marianne yeah, we are looking at the list that just came out of all the pardons that he did grant. A name that stands out that is not on the list, julians launch, a name people were discussing us potential, you know, someone he could potentially pardon, but that looks like that did not happen. What are your thoughts on that . Well, again, i think it was a lot of lobbying back and forth because that had been floated before, and i think a lot of senators up on the hill, including, perhaps Mitch Mcconnell being the most vocal, that the president should not do that. And lets remember that the president is still in jeopardy. And needs the senators, especially republicans, in his corner, as we go into the next phase of impeachment, which is a removal trial, in the sense. Marianne anything else that stands out to you about the names on the list . Anything else that you think is important for people to note . No, i think a lot of these names had been floated. I dont see any name on this list that is striking. I think, tomorrow, certainly monday morning quarterbacks are going to be either in favor of what the president has done or not, but the president is not unlike other president s, who, as the exit office, exercise their ultimate authority, which rests with the president , to do these kind of acts. Pardoning, forgiving crimes, and usually done for three reasons humanitarian reasons, personal reasons, and politics. People will opine on it, and it will be just part of history. Marianne well, it seems you are reading that list, those names that are on the list, they must be celebrating right now, a lot of these 11th hour pardons. What do you think of those people are thinking right now as they are receiving the news that they have been parted . Well, it is a huge relief, having been forgiven for crimes, basically the record is they had done something wrong, but there is no consequence anymore for those crimes. Same thing, you know, commutations of sentences. You still have the saying of a criminal conviction, but you are forgiven the time that you need to serve punishment. There is a reason why the founders did this, given the president broad power to exercise as he sees fit, for humanitarian, personal, or political reasons. And president s have done it judiciously, some more than others, but not without controversy, nonetheless. Marianne so, you know, we are just getting word of all of these pardons. Weve got 73 president ial pardons and 70 commuted sentences, for a total of 143. Does that seem i know we talked about this earlier but does that seem pretty normal, as far as president ial pardons go . Oh, absolutely. I mean, the present is right, historically, in the same category for his time in office as the president. Bill clinton, 396 pardons, 61 commutations of sentences. Some very controversial figures, including domestic terrorists, his brother, and of course, mark briggs, who defrauded the government in his taxes, so every president faces the controversy of who he pardons and why he pardons them, or why he commuted the sentence, and again, everybody will have an opinion, but nobody can change with the president has done. Marianne brad, anything else that you want to add that you think is important . No, again, i think tomorrow there will be a flood of experts who will either find fault or favor in what the president has done. I would urge people to read about the information behind with the president has done before they form an opinion, but the president this is less than 1 of the total number of applications that the president has received. Over 10,000 in his term of office. So its the power that all president s exercise judiciously. Marianne how about the pardoning of steve bannon . Was not a surprise . You know, it was a surprise, to me. Bannon has been less than helpful, at times, to the president , yet the president found mercy in what steve bannon had been faced with. Steve bannon, of course, was indicted, but he hasnt been tried yet. This could be a big relief to steve bannon, and it shows that the president remembers the good the people have done, not necessarily the bad. Marianne does this president ial pardon then mean that everything goes away for steve bannon . As if it never happened . Correct. The pardoning excuses federal crimes and expunge the records come up with the fact is, steve bannon had done something wrong, in order to receive a pardon. And with a commutation of a sentence, the record still stands in the criminality, but the forgiveness is in the time needed to be served. Marianne got it. And one last thing i wanted to ask, not sure if youre familiar with this name, but there was a name being thrown around, the tiger king, and we were told that possibly he was standing via, waiting to find out if he was on this list, and it does not look like he is on there, joe exotics, you see him right there. Is that a surprise to you . No i think, again, its going to be interesting to see what the president said, if anything, beyond the actions taken. So, people may have to read between the lines to figure out why people some people were pardoned or given commutations of sentences, while others were not. But it is truly speculation, because only the president knows. Marianne all right, yes, that is true. We just got this list a few minutes ago. Brad blakeman, thank you so much for all your insight into these pardons. We appreciate you joining us. Brad blakeman, former Deputy Assistant to president george w. Bush. And if youre just joining us, President Trump just issuing thousands of pardons and commutations. They included his former chief strategist, steve bannon, among other notable names that were not unexpected. We will have more on this as the day goes on. Thanks for joining us, and for now, back to hannity, already in progress. Sean scheme behind closed doors with your buddy, Chuckie Schumer. Every republican in the senate, let me be more clear. Nno not one republican senator should be wasting a second of precious time, you are off half the year anyway, on this post president ial impeachment charade. Every republican senator needs to walk out of what will be an impeachment schiff show, probably romney, sass, and murkowski will stay, and when its over, republicans should walk back inn and acquit the president of the united states, or former president at the time, and stop the unconstitutional schiff show. And mitch, if the choice, to be frank with you, is weak, establishment republicanism versus America First, i choose the latter. I venture to guess the overwhelming majority of republicans would agree with me. Its why im not a republican. Im a registered conservative. Your fellow kentucky senator rand paul is absolutely right when he stated, the senate that you supposedly lead, republicans, go along with this impeachment nonsense, it will be the end of the Republican Party. It is unconstitutional. It is beyond divisive. It is a political ploy by democratsy to seek revenge on President Trump, and off course, humiliate the 75 Million People who voted for him. 93 , according to a recent poll, would vote for him again today. This is also an attempt to banish President Trump from ever running again. Hey, mitch, that decision should not be yours. That needs to be left with a week, the American People. Not republican senators. Now, more than ever, we need elected officials to stand up for we, the people. The rhetoric from the left, downright chilling. It has gotten progressively worse over the last five years, with donald trump. Now powerful institutions in d. C. , now that would include the democrats, the media mob, big tech, all moving to silenceh and counsel any opinions they dont like. And as you all know, President Trump has been banned permanently from nearly everyy social media platform. So too have many of his supporters. American citizens. Four days, our friends at parler, competitors to twitter, were kicked off the internet altogether thanks to an alliance of big tech companies. Meanwhile, incoming President Joe Biden is comparing senator cruz and holly to nazis and propagandists because they supported a legal audit of election results. Oh, something democrats in 2000, 2001, 2016 and 17, 2004 end 05 called for. Other Top Democrats want them to be treated like domestic terrorists and put on a nofly list when they were expressing an opinion and looking for a legal audit, that is all. Students at harvard now calling for the school to revoke any degree from anyone associated with President Trump. Have you or have you ever been a President Trump supporter . If Forbes Magazine writes that if youaz worked in the trump administration, were going to take note, you better not be higher what . Is that the america we live in . Now going after the president , going after his daughter, soninlaw, his other son, they cant even buy a house without being persecuted. Live in a neighborhood, when they pay thats america . A truly insane column in the Washington Post today, all but accusing people like me and this network of sedition, wanting us to be silenced, ripped off the air, and thats not all, former pbs lawyer, i thought it was probably an outlier, i was wrong, caught on tape, we are going to empower the government to take kids away from their parents, children of Trump Supporters. And then have them go to reeducation camps where they will watch pbs all day. Many other outlets in the mob openly searching ways to deprogram Trump Supporters. You cant make this up. Take a look. 74 Million People are going to believe that because they have been brainwashed, joy. I really believe they have been brainwashed by this Misinformation Campaign over the past four years. The bottom line is, all of America Needs deprogramming, because we have all been negatively influenced by donald trump. Sean make no mistake, this is a common s theme now of the left, media mob, big tech. It is not good enough to win an election, control the house and senate and white house, they dont just want power over your government and paycheck and your business, they now want to control the way you think. You dont think right, they are going to deprogram you and reeducate you. And from the radical new democratic party, freedom apparently is a dangerous thing. These are dangeroushi times. We have to turn down the capability of these conservative influencers to reach these huge audiences. People on youtube, for example, havee a larger audience than daytime cnn. There are millions of americans, almost all white, almost all republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed. Its as if they are members of a cult, the trumpest cult. And bought into this big lie, and the question is, how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of trump . Sean by the way, hearing from the people that are part of the cult of rage, psychotic hatred of all things trump, deprogram, reeducation camps, they dont believe in freedom. That kind of rhetoric on the left, americans will need leaders in washington who are willing to boldly fight for our ideals and our rights. The nonstop vilification, censorship, or whether the mt programming, reeducation, unlearning b. S. , that would be dangerous and the end of our country. This impeachment schiff show and charade is going to throw fuel on the fire. Tonight, i will end with another quote from Ronald Reagan freedom is a fragile thing. Was never more than one generation away from extinction. This cannot my fellow american citizens, happen on our watch. You know why . Because our children and our grandchildren deserve better. And Mitch Mcconnell, if you are not going to fight, we deserve better. You can go back to representing the people of kentucky and let somebody that knows how to lead lead. Here with the reaction, Fox News Contributor dan bongino. A host of justice, judge jeanine pirro. Judge, we start with you tonight. Your reaction . Well, first of all, i think your monologue was terrific. What we are seeing with Mitch Mcconnell right now is his, you know, hes not going to be the majority leader any longer, he is going to be the minority leader. We saw him kiss the ring of Chuck Schumer and basically trashed President Trump on his stlast day in office, which to e makes him ineligible, as far as im concerned, someone who wants sat on a jury for an impeachment trial come up then again i think anyone impeachment of someone not in office is unconstitutional, given the fact they cant then remove them from office because he is already out of office, but having said that, we are the Tipping Point right now. The left is so hateful and so vengeful i wrote a book about this, that they are determined to cancel, not just the president of the united states, who has done more good that you just outlined, but they want to cancel anyone who is a conservative. They want to cancel conservative thought. They want us to lose our jobs. They want us to be harassed. They want people in our faces. This has to stop, sean. This is america. And joe biden is not the guy who is going to stop it, for sure. And mcconnell seems like, you know what, hes already on the side of the left. And i am disgusted with him as you are. Sean it is time for new leadership. Thats it. And rand paul is right, it will be the end of the Republican Party, and frankly, at that point, it would be, if they go along with this. In my opinion. You know, i look at this, dan bongino, and its likeey theyve learned nothing from donald trump. This is what i was thinking about. They didnt seem to learn, why does donald trump have this passionate support . Is it because we have been we are in a cult . No, because he kept his promise to cut taxes, ended the bureaucracy, kept his promises unconstitutional judges. He protected the border. He made us energy independent, better tradede deals, peace through strength, no foreign conflicts or wars in his time as president. Those are big promises, and he kept them all. Republicans, i dont remember them, 65 show boats to repeal obamacare, when it mattered, they didnt show up. Yeah, goes to my golden rule of the feckless Republican Party, which is this you will never bee disappointed if you respect the golden rule, its that most republicans are really democrats, but no democrats are really republicans, folks. Its an axiomatic truth. If you ever want to be let down, you can always rely on the Republican Party come in your moment ofy feet, to kick you in the face as he tried to get up. Listen, Mitch Mcconnell, did a decent job with the judges, congrats. That is what we hired you to do. You have one job. Does he want an award . On my own podcast, i said nice job, youre getting paid, w