Biden promises to sanction Trump, says no one above law
US Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has disclosed that if President Trump were accused of or charged with a crime during his presidency, he would not issue a pardon for such a hypothetical offense for the purpose of uniting the country.
The statement was made on Thursday May 14, 2020, in response to the question raised during an appearance on “The Last Word” with host Lawrence O’Donnell.
“Would you be willing to commit to not pulling a President Ford and giving Donald Trump a pardon under the pretense of healing the nation? In other words, are you willing to commit to the American ideal that no one is above the law?” a viewer asked in a video question played on screen.
“Absolutely yes. I commit,” Biden answered affirmatively.
Though Trump has not been charged with any crime, it is unclear what type of crime the MSNBC viewer who asked the question might have been referring to.
“Mr. Vice President, you’re saying that wherever the investigative trail might lead, whether that be an investigative trail pursued against Trump officials, Trump associates, administration officials, whether those are congressional investigations — that’s hands-off for you, you’re not gonna say, ‘Let’s just let bygones be bygones?” the host asked further.
“It’s hands-off completely. Look, the Attorney General of the United States is not the president’s lawyer, he’s the people’s lawyer,” Biden said.
Biden continued, departing from the original question about potentially pardoning Trump and moving on to slam the president over the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent legal maneuvers that were favorable to Trump associates.
“It is not something the president is entitled to do — to direct either a prosecution and or to decide to drop a case,” Biden said.
“That is not the president’s role or responsibility and it is a dereliction of his duty and the dereliction of the duty of the — you know, you have what? 2,000 was it, of former attorneys general and our people who worked in the office said the president and attorney general should resign? What’s going on is an absolute travesty. A travesty of justice. That will not happen I guarantee you,” he added.
Biden was referring to an open letter from former DOJ employees who are calling on Attorney General Bill Barr to resign over the department’s move to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. There are currently 2,300-plus signatures on the letter, which started out with just under 2,000 signatures earlier this week. The Medium post where the letter is written says the signatures on the letter “have been vetted to the best of our ability.”
In the same interview, Biden denied that he was part of the investigation into Flynn during the waning days of the Obama presidency despite his name appearing on a list of former Obama officials who requested what turned out to be Flynn’s identity in surveilled conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn had asked Kislyak to refrain from responding to Obama administration sanctions against Russia for its interference in the 2016 election.