Nikki Haley, who’s running for president, says if she’s elected she’ll pardon Trump for his classified documents crimes (see story here).
“When you look at a pardon, the issue is less about guilt, and more about what’s good for the country,” Haley said. Right. From that perspective, it’s hard to imagine anything more demoralizing to the intelligence community or harmful to our national interests.
And saying guilt doesn’t matter also undercuts law enforcement and the very notion of having criminal laws.
Haley added, “I think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of the documents case. That’s something you see in a third world country.” She’s getting ahead of herself. I don’t think Trump will get jail time for mishandling our national secrets, like Nghia Pho did, especially if Aileen Cannon is the sentencing judge.
Cannon is the Trump-appointed, green-behind-the-ears, Federalist Society judge who tried to sabotage the Mar-a-Lago documents case from the beginning, only to get slapped down by the most conservative federal appeals court in the country. She screwed up her legal rulings in that case, starting with the basic one, i.e. they said she had no jurisdiction to do any of what she did.
Sentencing is different; judges have very wide latitude in sentencing. And you can make a colorable argument that Trump, if convicted, shouldn’t get prison time for this. Age and health considerations, for example; and it’s a nonviolent crime. (The Jan. 6 riot, if he’s prosecuted for that, is a different matter; and if he’s convicted of that, Cannon won’t be the sentencing judge, as that case will be brought in Washington D.C.)
The “third world” bleat is a Republican talking point. It’s essence is advanced democracies don’t prosecute their leaders for breaking the law. This is true if you don’t count France, Israel, South Korea, or Italy, among others. In fact, it’s common for democracies to prosecute politicians who broke laws (see, e.g., story here). In other words, like most GOP talking points, this one is b.s.
Spouting false bumper-sticker slogans isn’t, by itself, necessarily disqualifying. But Haley keeps demonstrating she lacks the judgment to be president. In any case, she won’t be the GOP nominee; a male-dominated, white supremacist party isn’t going to nominate a woman of color. She’s at 4.2% in the latest FiveThirtyEight poll (here).
And if she somehow does make it to the general election, I won’t vote for her. She’s just not presidential material, as this latest outburst demonstrates.