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The lesson that Nixon took from Ford’s pardon was his famous line to David Frost: "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."
Many of his successors took the same lesson. https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1345904730220933120
Many of his successors took the same lesson. https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1345904730220933120
As @julianzelizer and I noted here, Ford’s pardon — which he sincerely, I think, believed was necessary for the nation — set a horrid precedent for the presidency. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/04/democrats-impeach-trump-accountability-watergate-gerald-ford-richard-nixon-column/2762361002/
It wasn’t an automatic shift. Indeed, as I detailed in my chapter in this volume, Jimmy Carter went to great lengths — even testifying before Congress in one inquiry — to show he was not above the law. https://thenewpress.com/books/presidential-misconduct
But the presidents who followed — from Reagan to Obama — returned to course, ignoring the rules themselves and refusing to apply scrutiny to their predecessors too.
As I argued here in @VanityFair, Biden needs to buck this recent pattern. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/why-a-biden-administration-shouldnt-turn-the-page-on-the-trump-era
As I argued here in @VanityFair, Biden needs to buck this recent pattern. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/why-a-biden-administration-shouldnt-turn-the-page-on-the-trump-era
Americans love to say “the president isn’t above the law” but then often — through their own misdeeds or their complicity in ignoring the crimes of others — they act as though the president is, in fact, above the law.
Given the extensive wrongdoing by Trump and his aides, there has to be accountability.
If you’re not willing to do that, just say you think Nixon was right and that, in America, the law is only for the little people.
If you’re not willing to do that, just say you think Nixon was right and that, in America, the law is only for the little people.
