Pardoner-in-chief

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of pardons and commutations in his second term — but it's not entirely different from how his predecessors used that power. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Jolie Myers and Jenny Lawton, fact checked by Andrea López-Cruzado, engineered by David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. President Trump at the 2025 Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House. Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Justice Department website, Justice.gov, has a list of people that President Trump has granted clemency during the first year of his second term.
0:10.1	It runs the gamut from the, if we're being honest, kind of funny.
0:13.4	You can call me a messy bitch. I've been called worse, but I'll take it.
0:17.0	Former Congressman George Santos in prison for wire fraud and identity theft to the genuinely
0:22.0	unfortunate.
0:23.1	This is Christopher Moynihan on January 6th.
0:25.5	And this morning, nine months after receiving a pardon from President Trump for ransacking
0:29.8	the Capitol, he's back in custody, charged with threatening to kill House Minority Leader
0:34.2	Hakeem Jeffries.
0:35.4	After January 6, Emily Hernandez ended up driving down I-44 drunk.
0:39.8	She killed a mother.
0:41.2	Hundreds of people on this list.
0:42.6	A lot of fraud.
0:43.3	A low cocaine, some tampering, a shoplifter.
0:46.0	So is this Donald Trump's latest unprecedented?
0:48.8	Or is he really not that much worse than his predecessors?
0:52.2	We're going to look into it.
0:53.3	Ahead on Today Explained.
1:00.7	This episode is brought to you by Vanta.
1:03.4	Security and compliance done wrong is a headache.
1:05.9	Done right, you build trust and grow faster.
1:08.3	That's Vanta.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.