There have been few lame ducks any lamer than Joe Biden in all of American history. He's not only a failed president, but the person his party put in his place to run for president got 7 million fewer votes than he got in 2020 and lost all seven swing states.
Joe Biden presided over the most disastrous military withdrawal in U.S. history. He stood by as war broke out on two continents. His ruinous policies resulted in the worst inflation in 40 years. And he encouraged the worst border crisis in American history.
But all of that might be tempered by one, striking act of statesmanship if he grants a pardon to Donald Trump.
Trump himself and many of his supporters would probably sneer at a pardon from Biden. They would claim — perhaps justifiably — that Biden was only trying to gain political cover for either a pardon or commuting the sentence of his son, Hunter. Indeed, with Biden's time in office running out, he must decide on his son's legal situation in less than two months. Pardoning Trump would take some of the political sting out of any action he takes to keep his son out of jail.
The Trump legal dramas have gone on long enough. Special prosecutor Jack Smith is shutting down the open federal cases against Trump while the state cases in New York and Georgia are falling apart.
But Trump can still be sentenced for the "hush money" case for which he was convicted on 31 counts. The judge in the case has "delayed" his sentencing, but given the animosity New York's Democratic attorney general and the prosecutor in the case have shown toward Trump, they would gladly look to set the precedent of trying to send a sitting president to prison.
Biden can prevent that and any other attempts at partisan lawfare by pardoning Donald Trump for any and all crimes Democrats say he may have committed or been charged with.
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AEI fellow Marc A. Thiessen and Danielle Pletka argue that ending the Democrat's lawfare with a gracious, statesman-like gesture would begin a much-needed healing process for the republic.
As University of California at Berkeley law professor John Yoo put it recently during an interview for our podcast: “Trump has defeated lawfare.”
But while Trump has survived, the collateral damage to our democracy might only be beginning. Absent decisive action, we could find ourselves at the start of a vicious cycle, in which Republicans now argue they are justified in weaponizing the justice system to go after Democrats, and Democrats then feel free to retaliate when they regain power — sending the country spiraling into a miasma of partisan litigation.
"If we do not want to go through an endless cycle of what goes around comes around," Thiessen writes, "a bold act of statesmanship is required: Biden should announce that he is issuing a blanket pardon for Trump, allowing him to start his presidency with a legal tabula rasa."
It's a mindless exercise of back and forth, tit for tat. It's a waste of Congress's valuable time when we desperately need Congress to focus on the immense challenges we're facing at home and around the world.
But the partisans on both sides demand it. Lawmakers feel compelled to answer their call for blood with charges, investigations, and tellingly, the use of the Justice Department to get their revenge.
Thiessen argues that if Biden were to pardon Trump, it would "bring the country together." That's very sweet, but it is not likely. If Biden were to pardon Donald Trump on the basis that the investigations and charges were a partisan witch hunt and apologize, that might soothe some feelings on the right.
But Biden's not going to do that and betray his radical left base. So the tit-for-tat lawfare will continue, with Democrats looking to impeach Donald Trump again.
