Ben Shapiro criticizes Trump pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez: “I just don't understand the president's logic here”
Shapiro: “If we are fighting war on narcoterrorism, it seems to me that pardoning people who were engaged in what it was apparently narcoterrorism — I do not understand that in the slightest”
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From the December 2, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): The president made a very odd move over the course of the last few days. He is apparently now considering the pardon of the ex-president of Honduras who flooded America with drugs. I honestly cannot explain this. I've long been an advocate of getting rid of the pardon power. I think the pardon power is generally a disaster area. I think it's bad for governors. I think it's bad for presidents. It seems to me that having one person with the ability to simply pardon people is a bizarre holdover from monarchy. If you actually want the criminal justice system to mean anything, it means that the consequences have to attend to the crimes. And we've had too many situations dating all the way back to Bill Clinton of corruption being implicit in the pardon power. You think of Denise Rich and Marc Rich and the sort of money that was changing hands during the Hillary Clinton New York senatorial race back in 2000 while Bill Clinton was pardoning Marc Rich. I mean, this has been a long time problem in the United States. I do not like that power. The conservative solution, by the way, typically, to abuse of power is to take away power from the government. The left-wing solution, typically, is to maintain the power and then use it themselves. Not always true, but largely true.
In this case, I just don't understand the president's logic here. According to the New York Times, he once boasted he would, quote, stuff the drugs up the gringo's noses. He accepted a one million dollar bribe from El Chapo to allow cocaine shipments to pass through Honduras. A man was killed in prison to protect him. At the federal trial of Juan Orlando Hernandez in New York, testimony and evidence showed how the former president maintained Honduras as a bastion of the global drug trade. He orchestrated a vast trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions for cartels while keeping Honduras one of Central America's poorest, most violent, and most corrupt countries. Last year, Hernandez was convicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. It was one of the most sweeping drug trafficking cases to come before U.S. court since the trial of Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega three decades before. But on Friday, President Trump announced he would pardon Hernandez, who he said was a victim of political persecution. It is not clear why he believes that is the case. Apparently, Hernandez's two week trial in Manhattan offered a glimpse into a world of corruption and drug running spanning several countries. Bags of cash, a machine gun with his name emblazoned on it, bribed from El Chapo, featured heavily. Prosecutors said that Hernandez was key to a scheme that lasted more than 20 years and brought more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States.
Honduras, of course, has long had ties with the United States, and drug trafficking has been a major problem. So if we are fighting war on narcoterrorism, it seems to me that pardoning people who were engaged in what it was apparently narcoterrorism — I do not understand that in the slightest. Certain traffickers testified that they had bribed Hernandez. He was convicted of drug trafficking weapons conspiracy. Apparently, a letter behind the pardon has now been released. Axios says that this letter was apparently penned from Hernandez, and it was part of a longtime lobbying campaign by Roger Stone, one of the scummiest people in American politics historically. Apparently, Roger Stone cast Hernandez as a victim of leftist lawfare in Honduras and President Biden's administration. He told Axios he reached out to Trump — Roger Stone — and reiterated those points. Stone claimed a pardon announcement would energize the national party in Honduras and called Trump's attention to Hernandez's four page letter begging for clemency. In his letter to Trump, Hernandez praised President Trump. Quote, I have found strength from you, sir, your resilience to get back to that great office, notwithstanding the persecution and prosecution you faced. And he talks about working closely with President Trump during his first term, and then he blamed Biden-Harris and their DOJ. Now, again, a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking, up to and including taking bribes from El Chapo, that is not, you know, a false prosecution based on mortgage statements or inflation of of real estate assets.