Mitt Romney, who over the years has made it clear he is no friend of Donald Trump’s, said he thinks that Joe Biden made an “enormous error” when you did not pardon Trump as soon as any Federal charges were levied against the former president.
The one-time presidential hopeful and current Utah said “he [Biden] should have fought like crazy” to keep them from moving forward. Had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him,” Romney told MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle.”
Romney, no fan of Trump, backed both impeachments against Trump in 2020 and 2021, respectively., The 77-year-old senator is set to retire at the end of his term next January. Biden, 81, who has taken a backseat to the Justice Department and rarely discusses his rival’s legal woes in public, laughed off questions about pardoning his predecessor.
Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped special counsel Jack Smith in late 2022 to spearhead the DOJ’s two investigations against Trump, 77, shortly after he announced his reelection bid. Smith later first brought forward a now 40-count indictment against Trump over his alleged hoarding of classified documents back in June of last year and a four-count indictment over alleged 2020 election subversion efforts.
Romney also contended that Biden “made an enormous error” by not pressuring Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, against plowing ahead with charges for the hush-money case.
“He should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward,” Romney argued about Biden.
“It was a win-win for Donald Trump.”
Presidents are only able to pardon federal crimes. Trump is facing a 34-count indictment in Manhattan over alleged falsification of business records to conceal hush money payments and a 10-count indictment in Georgia over alleged election tampering.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all 88 counts pending against him. Thus far, aside from the ongoing hush money case, no other indictment has a set trial start date.
Immediately after Bragg slapped charges against Trump, Romney quickly posited that “the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”
When pressed about whether it’s Biden’s job to run interference for Trump, Romney contended that the president has strings he can pull.
“I’ve been around for a while; if (Lyndon B. Johnson) had been president, and he didn’t want something like this to happen, he’d have been all over that prosecutor saying, ‘You better not bring that forward or I’m gonna drive you out of office,'” he argued.
Despite thinking not issuing Trump a presidential pardon a mistake, Romney — who Trump has called a RINO (and worse!) — says he has no intention of voting for Trump in November. He told Ruhle that he still considers Trump “unfit” for office.