Donald Trump’s approach to presidential pardons and commutations was among the most scandalous parts of his White House term, and four years removed from office, many of the controversies still linger. The New York Times reported this week, for example, on a Florida man whose life sentence was commuted by Trump in 2021, who was recently convicted of assaulting his wife.
This was, the Times added, “the latest example of a Trump clemency beneficiary getting in legal trouble again.”
But as notable as the circumstances are, just as interesting was the reaction from the Republican’s campaign team. The article added:
When asked to comment about the latest incident, Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said only, “President Trump believes anyone convicted of a crime should spend time behind bars.”
He does? Wouldn’t that have a direct impact on the former president himself, given his own rap sheet?
NBC News had a related report that added: “Leavitt and another campaign spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday about Trump’s view on jail time for convicts as it relates to his own conviction.”
It’s amazing how frequently this comes up.
In June, for example, Sen. JD Vance said that Trump’s potential running mates were being asked, “Have you ever committed a crime?” as part of the vetting process — despite the former president’s own crimes.
After Gov. Tim Walz joined the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, Team Trump complained that the Minnesotan has a record of “embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote” — which, again, seemed like an odd thing to say, given the former president’s felonies.
A week later, the GOP nominee issued a statement complaining about the United States having “a Pro Criminal Atmosphere.” Around the same time, Trump declared with confidence, “You’re not going to teach a criminal not to be a criminal.” A day later, the former president echoed the line at an unrelated event.
“A criminal is a criminal,” the Republican nominee said. “They generally stay a criminal, and we do not have time to figure it out.”
Such rhetoric might have had more of an impact if he weren’t a criminal.
This need not be complicated. A jury recently found Trump guilty of 34 felonies. This is not to be confused with a different jury finding Trump liable for sexual abuse, or the case in which a court found that Trump oversaw a business that engaged in systemic fraud. He’s also still facing several dozen other pending felony counts, across multiple jurisdictions. (He has pleaded not guilty.) What’s more, the former president has also surrounded himself with other criminals. “With Lincoln, they had a team of rivals,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley recently noted. “With Trump, you have a team of felons.” In case that weren’t quite enough, during his failed presidency, Trump had a habit of issuing scandalous pardons to politically aligned criminals, and if elected to a second term, the Republican has promised to issue even more pardons to politically aligned criminals — including those who violently clashed with police officers. And so, as Team Trump insists that the former president believes “anyone convicted of a crime should spend time behind bars,” it’s probably worth reminding the Republican operation that a little self-awareness goes a long way. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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