Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on Donald Trump citing Hunter Biden pardon in bid to throw out hush money conviction

President-elect Donald Trump - and his legal team - are using Joe Biden's recent pardoning of his son Hunter to argue that Trump’s hush money case should be dismissed.

Trump was prosecuted earlier in the year for falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels in 2016.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says Biden's choice has come with political blowback - from both sides of the aisle. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Deep international correspondence with ends and eye insurance, peace of
mind for New Zealand business. Yes, and now to the
United States of America, Dan Minchen said, welcome to the program.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, thanks, Andrew.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
So Donald Trump not one to you know, not take
advantage of a situation. He's using the Hunter Biden part
and to argue that he should be partoned and everything.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, he is. I mean, this this decision has kind
of had all kinds of blowback, and that's one of
the main ones as well. And legal experts are now
saying that he's got a fresh precedent on this because
of what Joe Biden did. And I mean most people
are using the example of Gerald for the former president

(00:44):
that pardoned Richard Nixon, and with the exception of him,
I don't think there's been a president that's ever issued
such a such a broad grant of clemency here. So
Hunter Biden is now effectively cleared of all the consequences
for the next ten or eleven years. And the whole
process was so secretive the Justice Department's office apart inn Attorney,
which typically advises a sitting president on these clemency issues,

(01:06):
was caught off guard. So I think. You know, you've
got people on the left end the right here that
aren't very happy with the decision. But as a dad,
maybe you understand a little bit. You know why the
president might have done what he did.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well, the question is when the Trump administration takes over,
will they continue a which hunt against Hunter Biden or
does this step actually just a new hunter for the
rest of his life.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, I think that's what President Biden was going for,
just because he saw what the handwriting on the wall.
I knew that if if President electro came into office,
that this was going to be at the top of
his list. You know, he had a list of vendettas
and he was going to go after this. So basically,
as a dad, Joe Biden said, I'm going to have
to do this. I know, I said I wasn't going
to do this. I was vocal about it. So as

(01:49):
a voter, you may be disappointed. As somebody in the
Democratic Party, you're probably disappointed as well. Republicans are outraged,
as you know the sound bites on the news. But
you know, again, going back to being a dad, maybe
you're thinking, this is the this is the best way
I can protect my son at the you know, the
last few years of my life.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
You do realize that the rest of the world looks
at America and the way their presidents can actually pardon
people for anything, and go, well, you know, are you
really the defenders of freedom and law and all that stuff?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah? Do we have another four hours for that conversation?
You bring up a good point, but you know that's
that's the you know, Trump it pardons at Bill Clinton.
I mean, every president has done their own pardon and
every time there's at least one or two that come
out and are controversial. And this is just the only
one that we know of now before he leaves office,
but I'm sure there will be more.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Okay, So let's move to California, where a law maker
wants priority given to slave descendants looking to get into college.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, this is kind of interesting. They want to they
want the descendants of slaves to be able to get
into the University of California and California State University, which
are two of the largest public schools and public universities
that we have here in the country. And there's been
a big push by people, especially on the left, for
reparations giving money or land to descendants of these slaves.
But this is the first time that something like this
has been introduced. And with the again we go back

(03:09):
to the incoming Trump administration, they're expected to dismantle a
lot of the diversity and equity and inclusion programs. So
I don't know how this is going to take off.
I mean, one senator saying, you know, when you think
about reparations, you think about cash payments, but uh, then
there's also the harm that goes down from generation to generation.
And these policies are a bigger process than writing somebody

(03:31):
a check, which they're already starting to do.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yes, but do you want a doctor who's got in
purely because you know the dead the great grandfather happened
to be a slave, you know.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Right, Yeah, And that's what they're saying right now. This
is gonna this is going to open a floodgate for
a lot of other people too. I mean, we had
we had Asians that were in internment camps during the
Second World I mean there's you could just go back
to a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
And is it intry requirements or is it over you know,
like the like final qualifications.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well that's what they're still trying to work out right now.
This bill has just been introduced at this point in time,
so I think he's going to have a lot of
people that are going to be coming up with questions
exactly like this, And then that's why this whole thing
is going to probably stall once Trump gets into office.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay, the old porch pandits that's steal your passes that
arrive with Kuria. Apparently you can get insurance for that. Now, well,
well you can.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
And I don't know how big the problem is over there,
but over here, I mean it's terrible. We have one
hundred and nineteen million thefts. The costs about thirteen billion
dollars each year over here. So there's this company called
porch Pals, and what you do is you write them
a check for one hundred and twenty bucks or fifty
or a year for fifteen dollars a month, and you
can file three claims for something that's been stolen off

(04:41):
your front porch, and each one covers about two thousand
dollars and it doesn't really matter the value of the purchase. Now,
it's a good idea, I guess, in theory, but I
mean you're also thinking about all the fake claims that
these companies are going to start getting especially around the
holidays too, with people trying to get a refund. But
I'll tell you that this is a this is a
grow problem. People are just blinking about doing it now.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
It's the same down here, mate, Don't worry. It's it's worldwide.
And I thank you for your time. That is Dan
Mitchardson out in the United States of America. For more
from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks
it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.