In an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle, GOP Senator Mitt Romney called upon President Biden to pardon defeated, former President Trump.
You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him. I'd have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy.
As for Trump's business fraud trial in New York City, Romney claimed that Biden "made an enormous error" in not demanding that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg drop the case against the defeated, former President. Romney claimed that if LBJ had been President he would have done something along those lines.
Bearing in mind that Romney is the only GOP Senator to have voted to impeach Trump twice, his take on the matter is utterly foolish. Had Biden pardoned Trump it wouldn't have made Biden look like a big guy. It would have made him look corrupt and venal. And Trump definitely wouldn't have acted small.
In calling upon Biden to pardon Trump, Romney is essentially saying that Trump and anyone who occupies the office of President of the United States is above the law. For all intents and purposes, Romney has gone on record in favoring presidential immunity.
Additionally, in claiming he would have brought pressure to bear against Alvin Bragg (and by extension Fani Willis in Atlanta) he is reinforcing Trump's claims of the "deep state" albeit to Trump's benefit in this particular case. Our judiciary is independent of the White House and if Romney had said such a thing to Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis or any other local or state attorney they would well within their rights to tell him to fold it five ways and stick it where the moon don't shine. While one might disagree with the merits of Bragg or Willis' cases, it is not the business of the President of the United States to demand a prosecutor to cease and desist.
Although Romney is ostensibly retiring from public life, his words sound as if he is seeking some sort of sinecure in a second Trump Administration. After all, he did beg and plead to become Trump's Secretary of State to no avail.
As someone who voted for Romney as Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and for President in 2012, he has shown himself capable of uttering unhelpful nonsense which neither inspires faith nor confidence in our increasingly fragile democratic institutions.
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