The Keith Edwards Show - Even MAGA Can't Defend Trump's Unforgivable Move

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

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George Santos was commuted of his 87-month prison sentence by Donald Trump late last night in a true social post I have right here. A Republican was asked about it and crumbled live on TV because there's no answering for this shit. There's just no answering for it. I'm going to show you that. And I also have a compilation of all of George Santos's lies. Now, let's get to Donald Trump's statement here where he says, George Santos was somewhat of a rogue, but there are many rogues throughout our country. There aren't forced to serve seven years in prison.

I started to think about George when the subject to Democrat Senator, Richard Dang, Nick Blumenthal came up again. And as I remember stated for almost 20 years, okay, he's just going to go through some lies here. Then it goes, because George Santos had the courage, conviction, and intelligence to always vote Republican. George has been solitary confinement from long stretches of a time. And by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. therefore I just signed a commutation releasing George Santos from prison immediately. Good luck, George, have a great life. Okay.

Now, George Santos pled guilty to all this shit. Okay? He pled guilty. He didn't even have a trial. He said I did it. He said I did everything. As I wrote here, I'm going to quote myself from threads. George Santos pled guilty to wire fraud.

Identity theft. Fraud tied to COVID unemployment benefits, misusing campaign. funds and lying about his finances on House to close reforms. He admitted all of it. A Republican Congress removed him from the House. So this is this this man was not mistreated. He got justice. Now, I'm going to show you this Republican who could not answer for any of this because there's no answering for it. But I want to say this real fast. I've been thinking about this because it happened last night. I'm recording this today. I wanted to give some space for myself to think

about it. Donald Trump wants you to think that laws don't matter. He wants you to think that there's no point in going after anyone because they will get away with it. He wants you to think that he himself is the final say when it comes to justice in this country. And that in some ways may be true for the next couple of years. But eventually, power swings in the other direction. And history has shown us that moments of great lawlessness come follow by moments of extreme justice. And we can't know for sure how the average American is going to feel about the corruption we're seeing right now, whether it be the fact that the President of the United States is using his office to make billions and billions and dollars, the fact that criminals are

literally just being released from prison. George Santos is the latest example. We also have January 6 prisoners who were released within Donald Trump's first 48 hours. So do not be despondent. I would say be enraged, but do not be despondent. Do not get depressed. Because one thing I know for sure is justice is coming. Justice is coming. It might not come tomorrow, but it is coming. And it will be glorious when it comes. And And everyone who is engaging in unlawful illegal activities today will eventually meet the hands of justice. And I know that.

I know that. So this stuff doesn't bother me. It actually just proves what we all already know, that Donald Trump is a criminal willing to do anything for anyone who's willing to commit crimes under his behalf. And we will see them in court one day. We will see them in court. Now, I want to just remind you to that this is not the person he, this isn't. not a good guy. This is not a good guy. Here is just some of George Santos's many lies. At a college, he said he attended, but didn't. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands

together for the one and lonely George Santos. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? My mom was a 9-11 survivor. She was in the South Tower, and she made it out. She got caught up in the Ash Club. I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life. Can we confirm Katara Abashé was your drag personality? For a day. For a day?

For a day when I was 18 years old. One of my staffers, baby. Look at this baby. Congressman Santos, what are you doing to stop the ongoing genocide of Palestine? And the next time he tries to accost me with a child in my hand, I want him out of it.

He's an animal. They sent me to a good prep school, which was Horaceman prep in the Bronx. actually went to school on a volleyball scholarship. I sacrificed both my knees and got very nice knee replacements from HSS playing volleyball. When I was in Baruch, we were the number one volleyball. I put myself through college and got an NBA from NYU. I've seen how socialism destroys people's lives because my grandparents survived the Holocaust.

I'm a Latino Jew. Because the reality is, I never said I was Jewish. I would always joke for years. I say I'm Jew-ish. He really sold the Holocaust. More seriously, George Santos pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for aggravated identity theft and wire fraud charges stemming from activity during his 2022 House campaign. He was expelled from the House sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison till late today

when the president commuted it to time served. Word came in a truth social post which reads in part George Santos was somewhat of a rogue, but there are many rogues throughout our country that aren't forced to serve seven years in prison. I started to think about George when the subject of death. Democrat Senator Richard Danang Dick Blumenthal came up again. The president continues about Senator Blumenthal. He was a complete and total fraud. He never went to Vietnam.

He never saw Vietnam. He never experienced the battles there or anywhere else. The president adds that, quote, this is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the courage, conviction, intelligence to always vote Republican. George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and by all accounts has been horribly mistreated.

Therefore, I just signed a commutation releasing George Santos from prison immediately. Good luck, George. Have a great life. CNN's chief White House correspondent, anchor of the source, Caitlin Collins, joins us now with more. It's incredible when you see it all laid out like that, right?

I mean, he lied about everything from 9-11 to the Holocaust to being Jewish. He defrauded people from their hard earned money. I think that's interesting to me, as Donald Trump is kind of very similar. The only thing is, is George Santos isn't a billionaire, isn't white. Donald Trump is both. So Donald Trump gets away with things that most people wouldn't because of his celebrity status and because he's a billionaire. I think that's something that also needs to change to this country. We actually have to go after anyone no matter how much money they have or how much perceived power they possess. Now, I also want to show you this moment where this Republican was asked about the commutation of George Santos. This guy actually voted to remove George Santos from Congress twice. And wouldn't you know it?

didn't have a lot to say about this. I believe that the three months he served is long enough for the crimes that he pleaded guilty to. Well, yeah, I actually voted to expel Santos not once but twice. The first time it didn't pass and then the second time it did. So I have very little sympathy for him. He got to Congress in the first place by manipulating the political process and breaking laws. But as Elliot said, I mean, this is a power that exists in the Constitution. It's sort of unique because most other powers of one branch or another, there's an interplay of the branches, whereas the pardon power is an exclusive power, a unilateral power

of the president. And I can assure you, you can look at the pardons that were granted by every president in modern history, Democrat or Republican, and you'd find cases that you found distasteful. And so, you know, the larger question of why the pardon power exists, I mean, the framers put it in there for a reason. I tend to think the reason is that they recognize that we live in a world in which men and women are imperfect. Laws can never be perfect. And so it is helpful to have this sort of release valve, and there's no better place to vest it than in the executive.

I think that's the reason they put it there. We can debate whether that was a good idea or a bad idea, but our founders got a lot of things right. So, you know, there's that to recommend it. But do you think George Santos deserved to have his sentence commuted? Well, look, that's for the president to say. I think that, you know, it's really, and I don't know. Well, I don't know if I was able to look at all of the facts that the president had as far as what's mitigating and what's not mitigating.

I don't make it a practice of commenting on each individual pardon that a president grants, because I can assure you that in any individual case, I'd say, well, no, this person did X, Y, or Z. They shouldn't get out of prison early, but that's kind of inherent in the exercise of a pardon is the person is being let out of prison early. So is it something I would have done? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have, but it's really an exclusive power of the president. And while Elliott said he'd like Congress to exercise oversight here, this is really the one area in which Congress doesn't have the power to exercise oversight. Yeah, I think everyone understands that, but you're not prepared to say tonight whether or not you think George Santos is deserving of this. I mean, the president was just citing the fact that he's always voted Republican as his justification for having him get out of prison. Yeah, I think you could find probably a lot worse cases.

Like if you go back to Mark Rich, who has pardoned at the end of Bill Clinton's term, who was a prominent, Democrat donor. Joe Biden pardoned his own son. So again, you could find plenty of cases in every administration where you could look at a particular pardon and say, I disagree with that. That's not what I would have done. But this is a power that the founders decided to give the president to exercise at his discretion. I don't know what the president's... Bro, I mean, this is, could you be more of a, God, I want to say the word. I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. But could you be more of wimp. Could you be more of a wimp? You can't just say it's wrong, because it is wrong. I will say I don't think Joe Biden should have pardoned Hunter Biden. I don't. I don't think Joe Biden should have

pardoned anyone that Donald Trump had a like Liz Cheney, any of those people, because they did nothing wrong. And if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to be pardoned for. Now, and that makes the pardon power seem even more accessible because that's why Donald Trump is able to get away with this, because unfortunately, Joe Biden got scared. He thought Donald Trump would go after his family or people he saw as perceived enemies and wanted to protect them. Donald Trump's still going after people regardless.

And now Donald Trump can also pardon the freaks and criminals that he thinks have been wrongly attacked by people who just sought justice. So I can say it. This piece of shit can't. So, but again, again, do not. be hopeless by this. I'm not. I'm not. I'm just like, thank you. Thank you for showing us who you are. Makes it easiest, makes it easier for us to know what we're dealing with. And they will be dealt with

in the future. I know that to be sure. I know that. People are not going to, people are not going to be okay with this stuff. They're not. We just have to make sure they know about it. And that's part of what we're going to do here. So thank you for watching. If you like this video, if you hit like, if you like, if you're not subscribed, please consider subscribing. And I'll see you. Bye.