Ron DeSantis says he would pardon Trump in clearest comments yet

ELKADER, Iowa – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offered the clearest indication yet that he would pardon former President Donald Trump if convicted of the multiple criminal charges he faces, clearing up previously murky answers about how the Republican governor would use his pardon powers. if he is elected president.

In an exchange with reporters after a campaign event in Iowa on Friday, DeSantis said when asked about a pardon for Trump that he had “said it a long time ago.”

“I think we have to move forward as a country and, you know, like Ford did with Nixon, because divisions are just not in the country’s interest,” he said.

Asked again if he would specifically pardon Trump, DeSantis reiterated: “Yes, I said that months ago.” When asked by NBC News to confirm that the governor meant that he would indeed pardon a convicted Trump if he were elected, DeSantis’ campaign spokesperson said, “Correct,” in a response Saturday.

Since launching his campaign in May, DeSantis appears to tiptoe around the issue of pardoning Trump if he wins the White House. In an interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly in late July, DeSantis appeared to acknowledge that he thought granting clemency was in the best interest of the country.

“Well, what I said is very simple. I’m going to do what’s right for the country,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think it would be good for the country for an almost 80-year-old former president to go to prison.”

DeSantis has faced the hypothetical question at other points in the campaign. During his first campaign stop Friday at a veterans care center in Iowa, a voter asked DeSantis directly if he would forgive the former president. Florida’s governor quickly moved on to another topic, saying, “I’ve already addressed that, but it’s a different thing.”

DeSantis’ prior lack of clarity on the issue of a pardon for Trump reflects the difficulty he and other Republican candidates face in trying to divert support from Trump’s base while also seeking to distinguish themselves as alternatives to the former president in the election race. nomination.

Former United Nations ambassador. Nikki Haley gave similar reasoning to DeSantis at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Thursday, echoing his comment in June that he would likely pardon the former president if he is convicted.

“I would forgive Trump if he is found guilty,” Haley said in response to an audience question. “A leader needs to think about what is best for the country. What is best for the country is not having an 80-year-old man in jail who continues to divide our country. What is best for the country’s country would be forgive him so that we can move forward as a country and not talk about him anymore.”

Haley’s comments drew criticism from fellow Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, who suggested she was not being honest with voters about Trump’s conduct in office.

“We need to tell the truth about this,” said Christie, the former New Jersey governor who has become one of Trump’s staunchest critics. Christie told voters at an event in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire that pardoning Trump would make the United States “no better than a lot of these tin democracies… around the world.”

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a frequent supporter of Trump, has said he supports pardoning the former president and that it would help reunify the country. In an interview with ABC News in September, Ramaswamy said he makes a distinction between bad and illegal behavior in reference to Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and his handling of classified documents, saying that The former president should not be prosecuted for those actions.

Trump faces dozens of felony charges in four criminal cases against him, including separate allegations of election interference in federal and state cases, mishandling classified documents and falsifying business records in connection with hush payments. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any wrongdoing in the cases.