Both Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) said in the last week that they would pardon former President Donald Trump if he were to be convicted on any of the charges he’s facing across multiple jurisdictions.
According to a report published on Sunday by The Washington Post, both DeSantis and Haley — who are running against Trump and each other in the 2024 Republican presidential primary — argued from the campaign trail that it would be best for the country to move forward and heal divisions.
“I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty,” Haley said at a New Hampshire campaign stop on Thursday, in answer to a question from a 9-year-old boy.
WATCH:
“A leader needs to think about what’s in the best interest of the country. What’s in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country,” she said. “What’s in the best interest of the country would be to pardon him so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him.”
DeSantis gave a similar assessment just one day later, during a campaign event in Elkader, Iowa: “We got to move on as a country.”
“It’s like Ford did to Nixon,” DeSantis explained. “Because you just, you know, the divisions are just not in the country’s interest.”
But David Axelrod, who served as a top adviser to former President Barack Obama, claimed that the promise of pardon — particularly coming from the two candidates who have consistently polled second and third to Trump — might go deeper.
“One unstated reason @RonDeSantis & @NikkiHaley have pledged pardons for Trump: fear of what the former president might instruct his supporters in the fall campaign to do if he’s NOT the nominee.”
One unstated reason @RonDeSantis & @NikkiHaley have pledged pardons for Trump: fear of what the former president might instruct his supporters in the fall campaign to do if he's NOT the nominee. https://t.co/1S2AACzCTS
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 1, 2024
Axelrod also made headlines last week when he admitted Democrats were playing a risky game in attempting to have Trump forcibly removed from state primary ballots.
“We’ve run this experiment, he’s only gained since he started getting indicted,” he said, arguing that if Trump were to lose, it would have to be at the ballot box.