Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have stated that, if elected president, they would pardon Donald Trump on all 91 federal felony charges against him (and, I assume, any other felony charges that might arise). Now, while I expect these stances are all about not offending Trump’s base, I want to comment on their validity.
As one commentator has said, Haley is profoundly mistaken if she believes pardoning Trump for potential federal convictions would mean Americans would “no longer talk about him.” It’s not as if he would simply slink away to Mar-a-Lago, with a Haley-endorsed pardon in hand, to enjoy retirement. Mitch McConnell thought that Trump would fade away after he lost the 2020 election and did not push for his conviction on impeachment charges. How did that go?
And the idea that it’s “in the country’s interest” to simply let a suspected or convicted felon get away with dangerous and unprecedented alleged or proven crimes is highly debatable. As has been argued before, the more future presidents are told they’ll be pardoned for serious felonies, creating an accountability-free dynamic, the less they’ll be restrained. If we believe that no one is above the law, we cannot let powerful people think they will be.
Jay Lacke
Westbrook
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