Sen. Mitt Romney Says Joe Biden Should Have Pardoned Donald Trump On His Federal Indictments

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) argued that President Joe Biden should have pardoned former President Donald Trump on the numerous federal charges against him.

During an interview with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle, Romney discussed his opinions toward the indictments against Trump.

“I don’t want to get into the details of this criminal trial happening in New York, but there is one, and Donald Trump is the criminal defendant,” Ruhle stated, referring to the former president’s New York hush money trial. “Fifty year years ago, leaders in the Republican Party walked into the White House and told a criminal [President Nixon] needed to step down. This week, leaders in the Republican party went up to that trial, stood outside the courthouse and attacked our legal system. How does that make you feel about Republicans right now?”

“Yeah, I think it’s a terrible fault for our country to see people attacking our legal system,” Romney declared. “That’s an enormous mistake. I think it’s also demeaning for people to try and run for vice president by donning a red tie and standing outside the courthouse. It’s just that I’d have felt awkward were I one of those individuals. However, I can also say that I think President Biden made an enormous error. He should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward. It was a win-win for Donald Trump.” 

“I’ve been around for a while,” Romney pointed out. “If [Lyndon B. Johnson] had been president and he didn’t want something like this to happen, he’d have been all over that prosecutor, saying, ‘You better not bring that forward or I’m going to drive you out of office.'”

“But I’m pretty sure you support having separate but equal branches of government,” Ruhle mentioned. 

“I do, but I also – let me tell you – I mean, you may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden when the Justice Department brought in indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him – I’d have pardoned President Trump,” the senator declared. “Why? Well, because it makes me President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardon, the little guy. And number two, it’s not going to get resolved before the election, it’s not going to have an impact before the election, and frankly, the country doesn’t want to go through prosecuting a former president.”

“I think the American people have recognized that President Trump did have an inappropriate affair with someone who was a – a porn star,” Romney argued, referring to Trump’s alleged encounter with the retired porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2006. “I think they realized that. Didn’t they realize he took classified documents he shouldn’t have and didn’t handle them properly? I think they understand that as well.” 

“Didn’t they realize he’s been lying about the election in 2020,” he asked in reference to the former president’s 2020 election fraud case. “They know those things. So these things are not changing the public attitude. Frankly, we ought to get beyond these and focus on the big issues that really matter to the American people: our inflation, our border, what’s happening around the world, America’s involvement in the world and – and I think President Biden and President Trump would do best focusing on the future for this great country.”

In late January, Romney stated that it was “really appalling” that Trump would lobby against the passing of a bipartisan border security bill being negotiated in the Senate.

A $100 billion spending package that would offer to fund for Ukraine, Israel and the United States southern border came to an impasse after Republicans asked for more border security measures. A bipartisan group of senators has worked to reach a compromise bill for weeks.

In April, Romney mockingly told CNN that Trump’s denying that he had a sexual relationship with Daniels is ridiculous.

He said that he thinks “everybody has made their assessment of President Trump’s character” and that, as far as he can tell, a person doesn’t “pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with” them.