Reports President Trump is considering preemptively pardoning himself, his children, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are troubling, according to President-elect Joe Biden.
“Well, it concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice,” Biden told CNN on Thursday.
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The two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator promised he wouldn’t take “that kind of approach to pardons” once he’s sworn into office on Jan. 20.
“Nor are you going to see, in our administration, the approach to making policy by tweets,” he said.
Biden has been adamant he would allow the Justice Department to operate independently, declining to dictate that Trump or his allies be prosecuted.
“I’m not going to be telling them what they have to do and don’t have to do. I’m not going to be saying, ‘Go prosecute A, B, or C,'” he said Thursday. “That’s not the role, it’s not my Justice Department, it’s the people’s Justice Department.”
His position, though, conflicts with the one Vice President-elect Kamala Harris adopted on the primary campaign trail. As a White House candidate herself, Harris told NPR that the DOJ would have no choice but to prosecute Trump.
When asked about the clash Thursday, Harris echoed Biden’s stance.
“Any decision coming out of a Justice Department, in particular the United States Department of Justice, should be based on facts, should be based on the law, it should not be influenced by politics. Period,” she said.
Trump has spoken with advisers about whether to grant preemptive pardons to some of his children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump — and to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as to Giuliani, his personal attorney, before he leaves office, the New York Times reported Tuesday. CNN also reported he has sought advice about pardoning himself.
