DeSantis says he would pardon Trump so America can move on

The Florida governor referred to president Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon over the Watergate cover-up.

Ron DeSantis campaigns in Davenport, Iowa, last week. Picture: AFP

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has said he will pardon Donald Trump if he is elected to the White House, should the former president be convicted of criminal charges in state and federal courts.

Florida Governor Mr DeSantis, in second or third place in recent polls in a Republican presidential race where Mr Trump retains a commanding lead, referred to president Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon over the Watergate cover-up.

“I think we got to move on as a country … you know, like Ford did to Nixon, because the divisions are just not in the country’s interest,” Mr DeSantis said. Asked if he meant he would pardon Mr Trump, he replied: “Yeah.”

His remarks followed similar comments from Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the UN, who has moved ahead of Mr DeSantis in some polls, and who said she would pardon Mr Trump if he is found guilty. “What’s in the best interests of the country would be to pardon him so we can move on and no longer talk about him,” she said at an event in New Hampshire.

Their responses were in line with other Republican candidates. At a televised debate in August, which Mr Trump did not attend, six of the eight candidates on stage raised their hand to indicate they would support Mr Trump if he were the Republican nominee, even if he were convicted of a criminal charge.

Both Ms Haley and Mr DeSantis are 50 percentage points behind Mr Trump in recent national polls though the race is closer in some state primary polls.

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has regularly cast himself as a candidate who tells Republican voters what they do not want to hear about their former president, said Ms Haley’s intention to pardon Mr Trump showed “she believes in two systems of justice, one for all of us, and one for the most powerful … That if you’ve been president of the United States … it’s okay to commit crimes”.

Mr Trump himself claimed he has immunity from prosecution for actions taken as president. Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing a federal case against Mr Trump in Washington, alleging he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejected that argument last month, writing that being president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass”.

Mr Trump’s lawyers filed an appeal on December 23, saying his actions to challenge the election results fell within his presidential duties, and prosecuting him would undermine the presidency. Mr Trump echoed that argument on social media last week, saying it was “my duty” to “expose and investigate a rigged and stolen election”.

Prosecutors filed a response on Saturday. “The defendant’s sweeping immunity claim threatens to license presidents to commit crimes to remain in office, ” wrote James Pearce, an attorney under Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed to investigate whether the law was broken in the run-up to the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. “The founders did not intend such a result.”

Lawyers on both sides have referred to Ford’s decision to pardon Nixon in September 1974, a month after Ford had assumed office, “for all offences against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed”. Nixon issued a statement accepting the pardon, effectively acknowledging his guilt.

John Sauer, Mr Trump’s lawyer, argues that “President Ford’s issuance of a prophylactic pardon reinforces the political and constitutional tradition against prosecuting presidents – it does not undermine it”.

THE TIMES