Two Democratic analysts were stunned on Thursday after President Donald Trump announced his latest pardon.
Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange who was convicted of failing to create adequate anti-money laundering protections on his exchange. Binance paid a $4.3 billion fine, and Zhao paid an additional $50 million settlement. He had served four months in jail before being pardoned, Reuters reported.
Democratic analysts Brian Tyler Cohen and Tommy Vietor discussed the pardon on a new episode of "Pod Save America" on Thursday.
"I'm going to lose my mind," Vietor said. "Why doesn't anyone care about this staggering corruption right before our eyes?"
The second Trump administration has wholly embraced cryptocurrencies, which is a stark shift from the Biden administration's more heavy-handed stance.
Trump has appointed David Sacks as the White House crypto czar, and Trump's family has launched a few crypto ventures of their own. Earlier this year, Trump hosted a dinner for some of the largest holders of his World Liberty Financial crypto token.
"This is just one small part of a larger hole," Cohen said. "And it wouldn't be so egregious if not for the fact that all of this is happening when Trump came into office, promising to be some populist champion. Like this guy was talking about housing and rent and groceries and the price of a f------ egg, and forget the price of any of those things going down, but he's just heaping more riches and wealth and opulence onto himself. So it's impossible to ignore all of this stuff."