Presidential historian Michael Beschloss made a good point about Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon on the Dec. 19 edition of MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.” Beschloss originally thought that the Nixon pardon was good for the country, but he has changed his mind.

Pardoning Nixon paved the way for the likes of Donald Trump, who claims that the president can do no wrong, simply by being president. Taking a cue from Nixon’s experience, Trump interfered with election laws and procedures enough that the Jan. 6 committee made four criminal referrals to the Justice Department against him.

Trump’s effect on the election process continues. In Arizona, Kari Lake took her 17,000-vote loss in the gubernatorial race to court. The judge threw out eight of the 10 charges made in Lake’s lawsuit last week. The two remaining issues – elements of fact already addressed in public statements – were dismissed Monday. Lake’s prospects for victory were, at best, very dim. The only thing she would have achieved is a lower level of trust and respect for Arizona elections. Kari Lake’s questionable attack of the election process is only the first by someone emulating Trump’s tactics. There will be more.

While Trump’s effort to change the result of his election defeat failed, the faith in our election process, though essential to our democratic tradition, continues to erode. We need to hold Trump accountable for his actions and avoid creating a second bad precedent.

Peter Konieczko
Scarborough

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