This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Friday, December 13th.

I'm David First, WNYC's weekend edition host, filling in for Brian today.

Presidential pardons have filling in for Brian today.

Presidential pardons have been in the spotlight lately.

Yesterday, President Biden commuted the sentences of approximately 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others.

The White House called it the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.

Here's White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre speaking yesterday.

The president is commuting the sentences of 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic

and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.

He's also pardoning 39 individuals who were convicted of nine non-violent crimes.

Earlier this month, in a much more controversial move, the president issued a blanket pardon for his son,

Hunter Biden, who had been found guilty of

gun-related charges and had also pleaded guilty to tax evasion. And pardons may soon be center

stage again. As the second Trump administration gets underway, the president-elect says he plans

to pardon people who were convicted in the January 6th insurrection on his first day in office.

In fact, in his first hour back in office, it's a promise he made again this week in an interview with Time magazine.

So, mix in with all of that the fact that the Biden administration is looking into the idea of pre-pardoning people who may be targeted during a second Trump administration.

And the advice from South Carolina Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn that Biden should pardon Trump.

And there's a lot to talk about.

To help us sort through the pardon

paloosa, we are joined by Merrill Cornfield, politics reporter with The Washington Post,

...