What Next | Pardon Me, Mr. President

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some presidents use their pardons for large groups of people. Some presidents use them for personal reasons. If you were to sum up Donald Trump’s use of the power of the pardon, the only word for it is “brazen.” Guest: Benjamin Wallace-Wells is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.7	slash setup.
0:28.7	Hey everyone quick request at the top of the show we're wondering if any of you are
0:34.5	personally experiencing your health insurance premiums going up on
0:38.9	the Obamacare exchanges. You know, that thing that some members of Congress got so upset about
0:44.0	that they shut down the government over it. Tell us if you're feeling this in your own life.
0:49.1	The way to do that is to leave a message on our voicemail line, which is 646-582-0091.
0:55.8	Again, that is 646-582-00-91.
1:00.9	All right, here's the show.
1:07.8	Yesterday, something pretty remarkable happened. The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, got released from prison.
1:21.1	Hernandez had been serving a 45-year sentence, convicted for sending 400 tons of cocaine to the United States.
1:29.9	He allegedly said he wanted to shove drugs right up the gringo's noses.
1:35.3	The Department of Justice accused him of running a narco state.
1:39.1	But he got a presidential pardon anyway.
1:43.5	Perhaps you, like me, see some irony in the fact that this kingpin served just a few
1:48.6	months behind bars, while Venezuelan fishermen, the administration calls narco-terrorists,
1:53.8	are being bombed to smithereens.
1:57.5	But you know what?
	...

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