New York Times columnist says Biden must issue 'blanket pardons' for admin officials 'who have not committed crimes' ahead of Trump term

MSNBC political analyst and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg on Wednesday called for Biden to pardon a large list of people who are mentioned in an "enemies list" in a book written by Kash Patel, who has been nominated to lead the FBI under the second Trump administration.

"It’s not ideal to have an incoming potential head of the FBI, Kash Patel, who has published enemies lists, but one advantage of that is that he wrote a book, he has an enemies list in it, so we know exactly who he has threatened to go after without cause. Just pardon everyone on it," said Goldberg.

She urged Biden to give a speech addressing the pardons, adding that he could say, "I wasn’t able to save the country from Donald Trump, but this is what they’ve threatened to do, I think we should take them seriously," adding, "because these people have not committed crimes, I’m giving them blanket pardons because the list of potential … investigations is kind of boundless."

Goldberg said that "they have made it very clear exactly who they want to go after," saying that "the absurdity of going after some of these figures like Cassidy Hutchinson should be pretty clear. Just pardon them all."

This comes after Biden issued a pardon for his son, Hunter, despite saying previously that he would not do so. Biden said that his son was the victim of "selective prosecution," a claim that was pushed back on by the Department of Justice. It also comes as the Biden White House is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for some figures, including Senator-elect Adam Schiff, former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, over concerns that they could face inquires or indictments under the Trump presidency.