Inside the Beltway: Will Joe Biden pardon Donald Trump?

NEWS AND OPINION:

Now here’s a simple question with a complex answer as the presidential impeachment melodrama continues. Will President Biden pardon his predecessor?

Legal scholar and Harvard University professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has predicted for weeks that there will be no actual trial of former President Donald Trump because the Constitution only provides guidelines for such an action against a “sitting president” rather than a former president who is now a private citizen.

So what about that pardon? The gesture could enhance Mr. Biden’s feel-good promise to bring “unity” to America. It could also rile up Democrats, particularly the very vocal far-left and progressive contingents.

The press is also intensely interested in the pardon possibility. It has been parsed in multiple commentary pieces and news coverage found in The Hill, The Baltimore Sun, the Deseret News, the Detroit News, the Daily Beast, NBC News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNET and Lawfare, a blog published in cooperation with the Brookings Institute.

That’s just a few examples. This is a popular topic.

“A broken country can’t move forward. President-elect Biden should examine all avenues — including a pardon of President Trump — to help heal the country’s fractures,” advised a Boston Herald editorial.

“Pardoning Trump might well have a number of upsides. It would allow Biden to transcend partisan political differences, but the more likely prospect is that he will have Merrick Garland conduct a prolonged investigation and decide not to prosecute Trump,” reported the National Interest.

Mr. Garland is the new president’s pick for attorney general.

Meanwhile, the nation has already witnessed the presidential dilemma of pardon — or not pardon.

Some compare the situation to President Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon in 1974 rather than allow charges of obstruction of justice against his predecessor.

“Would Biden consider such a move? Ford and Nixon were from the same party, however, so the comparison is not apples to apples. It seems unlikely for Biden to make such a gesture, but the continuation of Trump’s impeachment in the news could overshadow the new president’s agenda,” writes Nate Ashworth, founder of the political news site Election Central.

“Both sides are calling for unity but that lofty goal seems easier said than done. There is no short-term solution to soften the country’s anger. President Biden could act, and shut down the impeachment process in the name of moving forward with the agenda of the American people. So far, Biden is deferring to Congress on the question. It remains to be seen how long his deference or patience will last if Trump’s impeachment becomes the theme of his first 100 days in office.” Mr. Ashworth advises.

And the next topic up for grabs: “Will Trump pardon himself?” More on that soon.

A SUMMATION IN A DOZEN WORDS

“How can you impeach a president who is no longer a president?”

So says “Bo Snerdley,” — otherwise known as James Golden, the longtime executive producer of the daily “Rush Limbaugh Show” — in a concise comment made Monday.

A SPEAKER DESCRIBES A SPEAKER

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich did not hold back with his assessment of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who pushed through the re-impeachment of President Donald Trump.

“Nancy has been in politics so long that she operates like a genuine machine politician of the old order. And she doesn’t mind abusing power,” Mr. Gingrich told Fox News.

“She doesn’t mind running over people and I would say she is the most dangerous speaker of the House we’ve had because she’s so willing to break the rules and to, frankly, just say things that are totally untrue,” Mr. Gingrich said.

CLEMENCY: A REALITY CHECK

As long as we’re discussing presidential pardons, here’s a historical perspective.

During his time in office, former President Donald Trump pardoned Arizona lawman Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2017 for charges of contempt-of-court, along with former adviser Steve Bannon on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud in 2021.

Mr. Trump, however, was not a prolific pardoner-in-chief.

“Despite a burst of pardons and commutations in his last hours in office, Donald Trump used his executive clemency power less frequently than nearly every other president since the turn of the 20th century,” said a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Justice Department data.

“Trump granted 237 acts of clemency during his four years in the White House, including 143 pardons and 94 commutations. Only two other presidents since 1900 — George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush — granted fewer acts of clemency than Trump,” the pollster said.

“His predecessor, Barack Obama, granted clemency 1,927 times over the course of eight years in office, the highest total of any president going back to Harry Truman. Obama’s total was skewed heavily toward commutations (1,715) instead of pardons (212),” the analysis noted.

STATS DU JOUR

• 63%: Approval rating of President Ronald Reagan during his last week in office in 1989.

• 56%: Approval rating of President George H.W. Bush during his last week in office in 1993.

• 66%: Approval rating of President Bill Clinton during his last week in 2001.

• 34%: Approval rating of President George W. Bush during his last week in 2009.

• 59%: Approval rating of President Barack Obama during his last week in 2017.

• 34%: Approval rating of President Donald Trump during his last week in 2021.

Source: A 24/7 Wall Street review of Gallup presidentIal approval ratings at end of term. Gallup has reported on assorted presidential job approval since 1938; the poll methodology notes that “the vast majority” of these ratings are based on “discrete, multiday surveys,” though some years also included three-day and weekly averages.

• Helpful information to jharper@washingtontimes.com