The people have spoken.
The Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration has been voted out of office, ushering in another term for Republican Donald Trump as the 47th president.
But that doesn’t mean that Biden will not consider doing something surprising as one of his last moves as president.
Like pardoning his rival?
Believe it or not, it’s not that far fetched.
In an op-ed published by Mark Antonio Wright, the Executive Editor of The National Review, Wright lays out the reasonable framework to pardon Trump not because he’s “innocent”, but instead so he can enter The White House free and clear of bipartisan outside noise so he can start working from day one.
Wright wrote that Trump must be absolved of his crimes ahead of the initially scheduled sentencing hearing as Trump has already received a verdict regarding the matter from the “highest authority: the people.”
In other words, the landslide victory by Trump means voters want him as president and doing his job as such.
“The first thing Joe Biden should do this morning is invite Donald Trump to the traditional visit in the Oval Office between the outgoing and incoming president. Biden should extend all the traditional and lawful assistance to Trump that is appropriate in anticipation of his forming a new administration,” Wright stated.
“Biden should then move to use his constitutional authority to pardon Donald Trump of all pending federal charges, and relieve special counsel Jack Smith of his duties. He should then ask New York governor Kathy Hochul to use her authority to pardon Trump for the crimes he was convicted of in New York State,” he added.
Wright, the editorial leader of the conservative news outlet admitted that Trump is not “blameless” for the “circumstances surrounding the indictments that have been leveled against him.”
“… Most especially in the Mar-a-Lago classified-documents case, where the publicly available evidence shows that Trump was, at minimum, negligent and, at maximum, absolutely complicit in ignoring the statutes governing the handling of classified information and, possibly, those concerning the obstruction of justice,” he wrote.
Wright clarified that President Biden should pardon Trump because the results of the 2024 elections were “a definitive verdict on the subject delivered by the highest authority: the people.”
“Wise or not, a majority of the public chose to reelect Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. He deserves to enter that term in January 2025 with the slate wiped clean of the controversies of the previous era,” he added.
Will Biden actually pardon Trump? Seems unlikely.
But there is a cat-and-mouse game happening between the Biden and Trump family when it comes to potential presidential pardons.
During an interview in late October, Trump said he’s open to pardoning Joe’s son — Hunter Biden — if he’s reelected — a significant reversal after years of lobbing attacks at the legal issues faced by the president’s son.
Trump says he will consider pardoning Hunter Biden.pic.twitter.com/OiVOAmvRMz
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 24, 2024
“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt when asked if he would consider pardoning Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden was found guilty in June of three felonies in a federal gun trial and pleaded guilty in September to federal tax charges.
“See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously, despite what, and Hunter’s a bad boy,” Trump said.
“There’s no question about it. He’s been a bad boy. All you had to do is see the laptop from hell. But I happen to think it’s very bad for our country.”
Trump has long insisted that his multiple legal challenges are a form of political retribution — and cited Hunter Biden’s legal woes as an example of a liberal double standard under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.
Now that Trump is going to be the next president, we’ll see if any of this actually unfolds.