As the months of the Trump administration continue to drag on, something else continues to drag on as well — the Russia investigation. Led at present by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, it has so far included charges against four former associates of the president and an array of foreign interests. Next in the investigation’s sights is President Donald Trump himself, although he doesn’t yet have any criminal charges looming from what’s known publicly. The special counsel’s team just wants to talk to him, which is something that he and his associates have adamantly resisted.
Whichever way the investigation goes — with or without legal ramifications for the president — he can certainly be said to be feeling the heat. Early Monday morning, he tweeted a defense of the idea that he can pardon himself, saying:
‘As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?’
During the Monday White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was unsurprisingly promptly faced with questions about the tweet. Questions along those lines were the first she faced after concluding her opening statement — and in familiar fashion, she deflected them.
The first covered why the president thinks that he has the right to pardon himself in the first place.
To that, Sanders replied:
‘Thankfully the president hasn’t done anything wrong and wouldn’t have any need for a pardon.’
It’s ironic how the president and his allies keep repeating this line about the president having done nothing wrong while at the same time running around seemingly terrified out of their minds at the continuing investigation. What are they so afraid of?
In response to a follow up question from the same reporter about whether or not the president had ruled out the possibility of giving himself a pardon, Sanders commented:
‘Once again, the president hasn’t done anything wrong and therefore wouldn’t need one.’
Besides her deflection on the issue of the president’s insistence that — “just for the record” — he can pardon himself, Sanders also addressed other issues during Monday’s press conference like the tariffs recently imposed on goods imported from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.
Addressing the controversial nature of Trump’s decision to target our allies, Sanders said:
‘For months, the United States has had discussions with Canada, Mexico, and the E.U. to find an alternative. Without an alternative solution, tariffs are the only measures appropriate to safeguard the country. We have strong relations with Canada, Mexico, and the E.U., and those will continue.’
Watch the briefing below.
Suggesting that there was no other option besides subjecting American industry to a possible trade war is ludicrous and a product of the same kind of belligerence that’s led the president to insist that he can pardon himself should he so desire.
The president’s assertion to that effect comes after his own lawyer Rudy Giuliani asserted that although he believed Trump to probably have the power to pardon himself, he thought it to be a bad idea.
In pushing ahead with the idea anyway, it’s yet another example of the incessant belligerence that we have come to expect from the Trump administration.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
