President Biden could bridge the bitter divide in the country over the federal prosecution of former President Donald Trump by pardoning his predecessor, but the move would risk political martyrdom for Mr. Biden.
The first federal prosecution of a former president, who is also the Republican front-runner for president in 2024, has widened divisions in America’s already bitterly partisan political climate.
Mr. Biden could turn down the temperature with a pardon of Mr. Trump, who declared himself not guilty in a federal courtroom Tuesday on 37 charges of mishandling classified documents and obstruction of justice. A pardon by Mr. Biden would be intended to heal the nation and end the possibility of ongoing political retribution every time political parties change control in Washington.
“A pardon would be the cleanest way out of this,” said Robert W. Ray, who succeeded Kenneth W. Starr as independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation into President Clinton. “All they are doing now is further dividing the country. A pardon would leave the issue up to the voters where it appropriately resides.”
The White House has been mum about pardoning Mr. Trump. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment Tuesday when asked about a pardon. When the question was posed to Mr. Biden last month, he just smiled and chuckled as he walked away from the reporter.
Mr. Trump seems not to be expecting a pardon from the president and has accused Mr. Biden of orchestrating the charges in the first place.
The indictment comes as America hurtles toward a polarizing and even more divided era.
Democrats say Mr. Trump has flouted the rule of law for too long. Trump supporters say the indictment is a political prosecution and Democrats have weaponized the very institutions that symbolize law and order.
Nearly half of Americans say Mr. Trump should have been charged but the charges against him are politically motivated, according to an ABC/Ipsos poll taken last week.
Presidents have a long tradition of issuing pardons to heal the nation during crises.
Mr. Biden, who is running for reelection, will be hard-pressed to exonerate the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, whom he defeated in 2020.
That likely changes the political calculus. Pardoning Mr. Trump would subject Mr. Biden to intense, scathing criticism from within his party.
“Biden will not grant Trump a pardon because his base will tear him apart,” said historian Craig Shirley. “It will put Mr. Biden on the wrong side of his party and open him up to another primary challenge. He will pay a price politically.”
Pardoning Mr. Trump also would undercut Mr. Biden’s message that the former president is an extremist who poses a threat to democracy. Attacking Mr. Trump and his ideology is the centerpiece of Mr. Biden’s reelection campaign.
In April, Mr. Biden released a video warning against “MAGA extremists,” who he says are dictating women’s health care decisions, banning books and restricting LGBTQ rights.
“Biden won’t pardon Trump in 2024 because he’s too invested in his animosity for Trump and he’s got a very, very liberal staff telling him he can’t do that,” Mr. Shirley said.
Other presidents who have issued controversial pardons have taken hits in polls. That poses a problem for Mr. Biden, whose approval rating is mired at roughly 40%.
In 1974, President Ford pardoned his predecessor, former President Richard Nixon, for any crimes arising from the Watergate probe, even though Nixon wasn’t criminally charged.
Ford said the “tranquility of this nation … could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former president of the United States.”
Ford strode into office with a 71% approval rating when Nixon resigned, but that quickly plummeted to 50% after he pardoned him, according to historical data from Gallup News Service.
The move is widely believed to have cost Ford a full term, and he finished his presidency with a 40% approval rating.
Jeffrey Crouch, an American University professor who has written books on presidential pardon powers, said the political environment has become too fraught since Watergate.
“Watergate was a long time ago, and the mass media and political environments have changed,” he said. “A president from one political party potentially pardoning a former president from the other political party is already a big difference from Watergate.”
On his first full day in office, Ford’s successor, President Carter, granted an unconditional pardon to tens of thousands of Americans who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.
Mr. Carter said the pardon was necessary to heal the division and trauma caused by the Vietnam War, but the decision angered veterans groups that opposed amnesty for draft dodgers. Critics also slammed Mr. Carter for excluding military deserters from the pardon because draft dodgers tended to be well-educated, middle-class Americans.
Like Ford, Mr. Carter lost his reelection bid as he dealt with a weak economy and foreign policy blunders.
President Andrew Johnson expanded President Lincoln’s clemency program for Confederate soldiers after the Civil War. Johnson’s clemency program was far more lenient than his predecessor’s, angering lawmakers in Congress from Union states. Tensions soon boiled over, and Congress impeached Johnson on charges of trying to fire his secretary of war. Johnson survived removal from office by one vote.
Among the current Republican presidential rivals, long-shot candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was the first to commit publicly to pardoning Mr. Trump. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday that she, too, is “inclined” to pardon Mr. Trump.
If elected, Mr. Ramaswamy said, he would pardon Mr. Trump on his first day in office to “restore the rule of law in our country.” He has floated the idea of a pardon pledge to Mr. Trump’s main Republican rivals and Democrats challenging Mr. Biden, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is emerging as Mr. Trump’s chief rival for the Republican nomination, said he would consider the idea but stopped short of saying he would offer clemency.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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