Joe Biden should have pardoned Donald Trump on all federal criminal charges the moment they were announced, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said.
“Had I been President Biden,” Romney said, “when the justice department brought out 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 the little guy. And, number two, it’s not going to get resolved before the election. It’s not going to have an impact before the election. And, frankly, the country doesn’t want to have to go through prosecuting a former president.”
Romney was speaking to MSNBC, in an interview to be broadcast on The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday night.
They can technically pardon something before a conviction, but accepting the pardon requires admitting guilt to the crime. Basically, the pardon says “this person did it but I’m using executive override to remove any responsibility.” And accepting it is basically going “yeah I agree with both parts; I did it, and I’ll accept the executive override.” You can’t accept the latter “pardon” half without also accepting the former “they did it” half.