Senate Democrats are weighing whether President Joe Biden should use his final moments of power to issue preemptive pardons to shield those who could receive political retribution from President-elect Donald Trump.
The conversations come against the backdrop of Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail in which he’s threatened to seek revenge on individuals he considers his political foes, referring to them as “enemies from within.”
These concerns have become even more elevated after announcing his picks for attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, who have echoed Trump’s promises to imprison and prosecute political enemies who have skirted laws.
“There have certainly been discussions about this among some. How could there not be after all of the threats Trump has issued,” one Senate Democratic aide said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the situation.
Trump has previously circulated social media posts that call for the jailing of House lawmakers who investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, special counsel Jack Smith, Letitia James, the New York Attorney General who oversaw Trump’s civil fraud case. The threats have also extended to Biden himself, Vice President Kamala Harris, Former Vice President Mike Pence, and even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
He also has suggested that his former Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley committed a crime once punishable by death, called Senator-elect Adam Schiff a “sleazebag and traitor,” and has insisted that he and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi be “prosecuted.” He also targeted former Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who campaigned for Harris, suggesting he wanted military tribunals to punish her.
Even before Biden issued a pardon for his son Hunter, who was criminally convicted this year on tax and gun charges, on Sunday, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) publicly floated the idea that the president should consider “preemptive pardons” to people Trump has threatened to prosecute.
“I think that without question, Trump is going to try to act in a dictatorial way, in a fascistic way, in a revengeful first year at least of his administration toward individuals who he believes harmed him,” Markey said in an interview with Boston Public Radio.
“If it’s clear by Jan. 19 that that is his intention, then I would recommend to President Biden that he provide those preemptive pardons to people, because that’s really what our country is going to need next year,” he added.
Markey went on to cite Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal in 1974, calling it a way to “close that chapter” and move on “to an agenda that deals with ordinary families.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said he’d need more time to think about whether Biden should pursue preemptive pardons, but emphasized he understood why the president recently worked to shield his son.
“Let me just talk about the one that’s on everybody’s mind, the one that’s relevant, given the lengths that Donald Trump has gone to politicize the Justice Department, I consider what was done by the president over the weekend as understandable,” Wyden said.
However, a majority of Senate Democrats are not on board with Markey’s perspective on “preemptive pardons.” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said the push is something he’d advise Biden “not to do.” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) said he’d instead urge Trump to vow that he will not go after his political opponents before taking office.
“I don’t know how you pardon a person that’s not been charged with anything. I don’t think that can happen,” said outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), who went on to say he believed Trump should be pardoned in an effort to “balance things out and calm things down.”
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Several Democrats outside of Congress said the idea of Biden pardoning Trump’s political foes causes great concern about optics, especially since no one threatened has currently been charged with a crime.
“The left is hoping that Trump will not be permitted to engage in any interpretive acts for slights once felt in the past, is that possible? Not sure,” said Hank Scheinkopf, a longtime Democratic strategist. “But is it good to be politicizing the Department of Justice more than it has already been done — the answer is no.”
Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
