Joe Biden pardoned more people than any other president during his four-year tenure with the exception of one: Jimmy Carter.
The former president’s last hours in office saw him controversially issue pardons to government officials and family members, subsequently raising questions as to how many people Biden had pardoned.
In total, the 82-year-old pardoned 8034 people – 6500 of whom had their convictions quashed for marijuana possession. Only Jimmy Carter, who signed Proclamation 4483, granting conditional amnesty to more than 200,000 people who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War supersedes Biden’s tally. Even with the 6500 marijuana commutations excluded, this still holds true for Biden.
Reconstruction Era president Andrew Johnson is third on the list for his pardon of 7,654 people – many of whom were ex-Confederates. Franklin D. Roosevelt, during his 12-year tenure, issued 3,687 pardons while Woodrow Wilson rounded off the top five (2,480).
On Monday, President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 defendants of Jan. 6, adding to his 237 from his first term – which sent liberals liberals into hysterics. Oddly, the same liberals didn’t make a peep when he was preemptively pardoning his family, or letting murderers off death row.
Barack Obama pardoned 1,927 people while in office – far more than the 459 and 200 of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush respectively.
Only William Henry Harrison and James A. Garfield pardoned no one during their short-lived stints in office, while George Washington pardoned the fewest people of any president to serve a full term.
