Activists cheered when Joe Biden committed to not pardoning President Trump. But the concern at the root of the question is not based on substantive evidence that any top Democrats think pardoning Trump would be a beneficial move should they win the White House.
In a Thursday MSNBC town hall, a viewer submitted a question for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee: “Would you be willing to commit to not pulling a President Ford and giving Donald Trump a pardon under the pretext of healing the nation?” he asked, referring to the pardon of President Richard Nixon after he resigned in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal. “In other words, are you willing to commit to the American ideal that no one is above the law?”
Biden assured the questioner he would not.
“Absolutely, yes. I commit,” Biden said. “It’s hands-off completely. Look, the attorney general of the United States is not the president’s lawyer. It’s the people’s lawyer.”
Before the wide 2020 Democratic presidential field had narrowed, many contenders were on the record taking a stand against pardoning Trump, including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.
“If I’m elected President of the United States, there will be no pardons for anyone implicated in these investigations,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a February 2019 blog post.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, in a September interview, fueled concerns among the Left that Trump could face no accountability for perceived wrongdoings. He was asked whether it would harm Democrats to prosecute Trump after he is out of office in the absence of impeachment proceedings.
“Yes, I think there is a potential cost to the nation by putting on trial a former president,” he said, adding that while President Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Nixon might have kept him from winning the 1976 election, “I tend to think that that was probably the right thing to do.”
A Democratic president who defeats Trump, however, would be in a categorically different position than Ford, having taken over for a man from his own party whom he campaigned with as a running mate.
And rather than voicing support for pardoning Trump, some prominent Democratic officials hint or outright show support for prosecuting him after he leaves office, making it unlikely that Biden would take the drastic step of essentially exonerating Trump with a pardon in an effort to emulate Ford’s desire to move on.
California Sen. Kamala Harris said in June 2019, when she was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, would have “no choice” but to prosecute Trump.
“There has to be accountability,” Harris added. “I mean, look, people might, you know, question why I became a prosecutor. Well, I’ll tell you one of the reasons — I believe there should be accountability. Everyone should be held accountable, and the president is not above the law.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff in July 2019 tweeted an exchange with special counsel Robert Mueller that noted the president could technically be legally prosecuted for actions he took after he leaves office that the Department of Justice thinks he could not be constitutionally charged with now.
Mueller was asked, “Did you actually totally exonerate the president?”
He responded simply, “No,” and said, “The president was not exculpated.”
When asked if it was true Trump could be charged when he leaves office, Mueller responded simply, “True.”
That’s pretty clear cut.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 24, 2019
Though it is not likely, the question about pardoning Trump is a way for Democrats to allow Biden and prominent candidates to hint at the possibility of prosecuting Trump while avoiding having to make a legally and politically messy pledge to prosecute him.
For Bullock, the issue served as a way for him to try to rally support. He shared a video of himself pledging to not prosecute Trump in a tweet last May when he was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
A Trump pardon is the latest unlikely scenario garnering attention from Democrats. Last month, Biden asserted that Trump will try to delay the November election.
“Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said, claiming that Trump is “trying to let the word out that he’s going to do all he can to make it very hard for people to vote” because “that’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.”
Trump is not constitutionally able to change the date of the November election and has not indicated that he will try to.
