Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that the presidential pardon process “calls for reform,” and proposed creating a commission to standardize the process and make recommendations to the president.
In an interview on CBS News' “Face the Nation,” Klobuchar said she was uncomfortable with some people President Biden included in his 1,500 daily commutes. This is a record number for a president.
Asked by host Margaret Brennan if she was satisfied that some of the convictions on the list had their sentences reduced, Klobuchar said, “No.”
“I also did not agree with pardoning the president's son,” Klobuchar added. “I also disagree with the numerous pardons that President Trump has granted.”
Klobuchar acknowledged that the president's pardon power is in the Constitution and clarified that she is not advocating changing it.
“But there should be some kind of external committee that the governor has,” she said. “Governors have the ability to give clemency to people after all these years. But a lot of it is not just people in the White House doing it in the middle of the night, they have commissions that make recommendations and things like that. It is being installed.”
Klobuchar agreed with Brennan, saying it was surprising that the White House would base the reductions on broad groups rather than specific cases.
Asked whether it was a wise decision by the White House, Klobuchar said, “There's no question that this group deserved a pardon.” “I think there was.”
“But there were also numbers that seemed completely meaningless,” she continued. “So instead of doing the whole category, next year before the end of the president's term, if that's the time that's primarily going to be doing these things, why don't the boards look at these and consider them individually? What happens when people petition based on facts and not just in large groups? ” Klobuchar said.
“I think large groups have been done before, but I think this whole process is calling for reform, because if we don’t we’re going to weaken the justice system. ” she said.
