Michael Conway earned his chops as a Watergate-era lawyer, where he served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, and he’s recently penned a column for NBC News THINK, [1] where he makes the case that President-elect Joe Biden should pardon President Donald Trump. Conway also writes Democrats should accept this, Mediaite [2] reports.
In a nutshell, Conway argues that if Trump accepts a pardon, it would be an admission of his guilt. He also says Trump could still be prosecuted for state and local crimes.
Conway also argues:
- A pardon would buffer Biden against the stain of political vendetta.
- It could work as a healing salve to mollify the 72+ million idiots, er people, who voted for Trump “despite his misconduct (or the election results).”
While Conway did note that Biden has previously promised not to pardon Trump, he also adds Biden pledged this “before the closeness of our election revealed how many Americans wanted Trump to remain in office. Clearly, a Biden administration investigation, let alone the prosecution, of Trump could well make the former president even more of a martyr to his followers, fuel a further escalation of the existing partisan divisions and even lead to civil unrest.”
But as Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher [3] notes this might be the wrong kind of encouragement for Trump and his followers.
“That argument, however, also sounds a lot like a reward for any leader with a fanatical following that might just tip over into violence if displeased,” he writes. “Tomato, tomahto.”
And let me tell, the idea of a pardon for Trump does not play well on Twitter, where users have stepped up to air their discontent with this idea.
The fuck out.
First, pardon every American ever convicted for weed then let the chips fall for Trump. https://t.co/fEM3RAXES9 [4]
— Jeffrey We Voted Out That Gameshow Clown Wright (@jfreewright) November 18, 2020 [5]
HELL NO 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥!!!!! What #Trump [6] has done to our country?! He violated every norm, degraded the office, abused his power, and is STILL blocking President Elect Biden from his earned https://t.co/QI4whubST3 [7]. 1000% NO🚨🚨🚨Why Biden should pardon Trump https://t.co/sSelqjxwGd [8]
— Debra Messing✍🏻 (@DebraMessing) November 18, 2020 [9]
This is disgusting. The man has been running around for 4 years calling for Hillary Clinton and others to be sent to prison while he has committed numerous crimes, some caused his impeachment.
Hell NO. https://t.co/iaBnLqhBzD [10]
— Jennifer Hayden (@Scout_Finch) November 18, 2020 [11]
Absolutely fucking not. Defeating Donald Trump was only the first step toward saving American democracy. If there are no consequences for breaking the law, Biden creates incentives for future Presidents to break the law even more. https://t.co/adrpLk4Cgg [12]
— Greg (@waltisfrozen) November 18, 2020 [13]
My whole life I've been told that in the US, nobody is above the law.
What absolute malarkey. If Donald Trump and those under him get off after 4 years of criminal behavior that threatens our very democracy, everything about this country is a lie. Corruption wins. https://t.co/iaBnLq00b3 [14]
— Jennifer Hayden (@Scout_Finch) November 18, 2020 [15]
Absolutely not. If there are no consequences for the damage he has done to the rule of law and to our democracy as a whole, the GOP will just do it again and again.
— SpartanDan (@dbaker3448) November 19, 2020 [16]
pic.twitter.com/keECWMvYj0 [17]
— Kate (@Kategivesup) November 19, 2020 [18]
Then there’s this one, which aims a funny bit of snark at Conway:
NBC has yet to run my Op/Ed: "90% of U.S. political pundits should be fired into the sun" https://t.co/nnr16DHY7l [19]
— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) November 18, 2020 [20]
And this tweet, which, I might add, is succinct:
There is no "unifying America," so how about we actually act like laws matter and no one — including the president — is above the law. https://t.co/862xnCBtsQ [21]
— Britni Danielle (@BritniDWrites) November 18, 2020 [22]
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