Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” argued that his fellow Republicans should not promise to pardon former President Donald Trump.
Anchor Dana Bash said, “You just heard your fellow 2024 candidate Vivek Ramaswamy say he would pardon Donald Trump on his first day in office. What is your reaction?”
Hutchinson said, “Well, that’s wrong. It is simply wrong for a candidate to use the pardon power of the United States of the president in order to curry votes and in order to get an applause line. It is just wrong. It shouldn’t happen that way. If you start down that path it is unending. And so we shouldn’t be promising and holding out the fig leaf of a pardon because that undermines our jury system. It undermines the grand jury that found probable cause to have him say there is going to be a pardon anyway for this. That really undermines the rule of law in our country. I have served my lifetime supporting. And it is offensive to me that anyone would be holding out a pardon in these circumstances.”
He added, “It is a legitimate campaign issue. We do not need to have our commander-in-chief of this country not protecting our nation’s secrets.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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