Critics Take Hakeem Jeffries To Task For Praising Trump's Latest Pardon
Many blasted the House minority leader's reaction to Trump pardoning a Democrat who was indicted on charges of bribery and acting as a foreign agent.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hakeem-jeffries-trump-pardon-henry-cuellar_n_6930cf60e4b0824b6df7cad7
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday praised President Donald Trump’s decision to preemptively pardon Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), a conservative Democrat who was indicted on charges of bribery and acting as a foreign agent last year. “I don’t know why the president decided to do this. I think the outcome was exactly the right outcome,” Jeffries said in an appearance on CNN.
Cuellar and his wife were indicted last May for allegedly taking $600,000 in exchange for influencing U.S. foreign policy for an Azerbaijani government-controlled oil company and backing legislative acts to support a Mexican bank.
In a
post to his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that the indictment was a result of the Biden administration having “weaponized the Justice System against their Political Opponents,” adding that Cuellar was targeted as he “bravely spoke out against Open Borders.”
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Jeffries’ praise notably departs from his history of slamming Trump’s “toxic” use of his pardoning power. Last month, Jeffries said Trump was “completely and totally out of control” with the power and cited the pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, ex-Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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This normalizes corruption, feeding the sentiment that both sides suck and so politics is pointless. A Dem party focused on rehabilitating its broken brand would be criticizing Trump and booting out Cuellar. Let the corrupt guys become corporate lobbyists - they’re dragging our party down.
— Ezra Levin âŒðŸ‘‘ (@ezralevin.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T20:13:15.525Z
Alex, give me "Why do voters thinks 'both sides' are corrupt for 0."
— Amanda Marcotte (@amandamarcotte.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T19:42:11.760Z
I’m kind of new to the Democrats, but I thought we were FOR respecting the legal process, and also that we were AGAINST political corruption. And that it was especially important to hold to these principles at this time.
But I guess there’s some insider memo I didn’t get that would set me straight?
— Bill Kristol (@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T18:30:09.287Z
What an embarrassment Hakeem Jeffries is. The charges against Cuellar were so "thin" that two of his assistants had already pleaded guilty and were set to testify against him. Jeffries has got to go.
— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T19:02:55.402Z
etc etc
= new reply since forum marked as read