Vice President Kamala Harris hinted that she wouldn’t pardon former President Donald Trump should she be elected president.
Harris sat down with NBC’s Hallie Jackson for an interview that aired Tuesday night.
Jackson pointed out that Trump continues to face federal charges and asked Harris if she would pardon her current political rival if he’s convicted.
‘I’m not going to get into those hypotheticals,’ Harris replied. ‘I’m focused on the next 14 days.’
Jackson then asked if there was ‘any part of you’ that believes that pardoning the ex-president ‘could help unify the country and move on.’
‘Let me tell you what’s going to move on – I get elected president of the United States,’ Harris replied.
The Republican nominee was already convicted on 34 felony counts in the state of New York over business fraud charges related to the hush money payments given to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Since those are state charges, only New York’s governor could pardon Trump – not a U.S. president.
New York currently has Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in charge and she’s unlikely to do Trump the favor.
While the cases have been delayed, Trump is facing federal charges over his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election and January 6, which is being investigated by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Smith is also in charge of the classified documents case, which would also amount to federal crimes.
The Georgia election interference case is also a state-level case, so a pardon would have to be administered by the state’s governor, which is currently Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Trump and Kemp have made up since the 2020 election and Kemp is again publicly supporting the 2024 GOP nominee.
Trump is the first ex-president in history to be charged and convicted of felonies.
The late Republican President Richard Nixon was never charged for any crimes related to Watergate.
Nixon’s successor, President Gerald Ford, granted him a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed while serving as president on September 8, 1974 – just shy of a month after he resigned.
While Ford asserted that he had pardoned Nixon so the country could move past the Watergate scandal, many Americans were angered that the Republican leader never saw his day in court.
Operatives working for Nixon’s reelection campaign had broken into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters – at the storied Watergate building in D.C. – and the White House was involved in the subsequent cover-up, leading Nixon to ultimately become the first and only president to ever resign.