Protesters gathered on the steps of the New York Public Library to mark the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, demanding no presidential pardons be issued for the insurrectionists. Michael Nigro/Sipa/AP
President Joe Biden The president announced a flurry of pardons in his final days in office, starting with his son Hunter’s pardon and ending with his announcement in mid-December that he had pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans. Biden told reporters this week that he was still considering granting preemptive pardons to prominent critics of President Trump before the end of his term. Donald Trump has also expressed his intention to actively utilize pardons, saying on his first day in office that he would pardon participants in the January 6 insurrection.
As this week’s episode of Reveal makes clear, the debate over presidential pardon power is nothing new. Today’s show features audio from Reveal’s first interview with Gerald Ford in 2019, in which the former president spoke about his decision to pardon Richard Nixon in 1974. Mr. Ford said, “I had a hunch that the public’s antipathy toward Mr. Nixon was so great that they would not be able to understand it.In fact, that’s exactly what happened.” “At the time, the people and many of our leaders, including our dear friends, did not understand that.”
Also on this week’s episode, Reveal reported that thousands of Americans continue to wait for presidential pardons in the aftermath of the war on drugs. Listen to the show here:
This is an update to the episode that originally aired in July 2019.
