Before President Joe Biden leaves office in one week, members of Congress and advocacy groups are making last-ditch efforts to urge the outgoing commander-in-chief to take executive actions they hope will advance justice and equality and cement his civil rights legacy.
In a recent interview with theGrio, the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, is calling on Biden to issue pardons for two high-profile Democrats: Marilyn Mosby, the former Baltimore City state’s attorney, and former Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.
“There’s still some pardons he can do all the way up to when he has to walk on that stage and give the reins of government to Donald Trump,” Sharpton told theGrio.
Mosby was federally convicted last year for withdrawing funds from her retirement account and falsely claiming adverse financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to buy a vacation home in Florida. Critics argued her prosecution was politically motivated and that she was overly prosecuted for the crime.
Jackson Jr., son of civil rights icon Jesse Jackson, Sr., pleaded guilty in 2012 to defrauding his reelection campaign of $750,000 over a 10-year period.
When asked if the public could expect to hear any announcements of high-profile pardons for individuals like Mosby and Jackson, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told theGrio she would not “get ahead of the president.”
“He’s going to make some more announcements on pardons and commutations. Certainly, we’ve heard from groups out there who have certainly been very vocal about what they think … the president should do,” said the Biden spokesperson. “The president and his team [are] working through it. They’re trying to figure out the best way forward.”
Jean-Pierre continued, “Obviously, the president believes in Americans who have shown they can get a second chance to have that second chance, and I think you’ve seen that.”
During his administration, including his final months in office, President Biden has issued record pardons and commutations for those convicted of non-violent crimes like marijuana possession. Last month, he granted clemency to nearly 1,500 individuals – the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history by an American president.
Jean-Pierre told theGrio that President Biden’s actions as it relates to pardons and commutations have been “pretty historic.”
Reflecting on Biden’s civil rights record and what he’s done for Black Americans, Rev. Sharpton said the president has “probably the best record we’ve seen.”
The civil rights leader noted Biden’s executive order enacting police reforms in response to the 2020 police-involved murder of George Floyd. Sharpton also praised the Biden administration’s Justice Department for federally prosecuting the officers involved in the Floyd case, as well as the Louisville Police killing of Breonna Taylor and Georgia shooting murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
Sharpton applauded President Biden for also advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, which he noted is now “under siege [by] his successor,” referring to President-elect Donald Trump, who has railed against DEI and promised to end all such programs on the federal level.
“It will seriously impair our economic standing, not only Black businesses but Black unemployment because many of us are working because they had to have certain diversity in the workforce,” said Sharpton of his concern about Trump and Republicans’ plans to unravel DEI.
“I’m [also] concerned about health care, as [Trump] wants to try and revoke the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare,” said Sharpton.
Returning to the issue of criminal justice, Rev. Sharpton expressed concern that police brutality and hate crimes could increase during Trump’s presidency with a lack of efforts to reform police departments or prosecute hate crime cases.
“Let’s not forget Donald Trump was president when George Floyd happened, when Breonna Taylor happened, when Ahmaud Arbery happened. He did nothing but lecture that we better not riot,” recalled Sharpton, adding, “‘If the looting starts, the shooting starts,’ was what he said. No empathy, no kind of compassion, and no understanding on some very critical racial incidents.”
He said flatly, “I don’t know any president in modern history [who] showed that kind of insensitivity.”
As for President Biden, Sharpton admits there was room to do more to advance the Black agenda. “Did I push him to do more? Yes, but he did some consequential things,” he told theGrio.
As civil rights groups and advocates await more actions on criminal justice, Sharpton said, “I would like to see him, in his last couple of weeks, pardon even more people who were victimized by over-sentencing or wrong sentencing.”
