On Sept. 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon for the Watergate Scandal. The former President had resigned in disgrace in August of that year rather than face an impeachment inquiry. Many Americans who already had a deep-seated hatred for Nixon were outraged by the pardon, particularly after the new president had suggested just weeks earlier that the public would not stand for absolving Nixon of what likely amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors.
History, however, has a way of lifting the haze from the present, and many today believe that Ford’s pardon of Nixon was the right thing to do. Even outraged partisans such as Senator Ted Kennedy, later asserted that “time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right.” Ford’s pardon of Nixon can guide us through today’s political turbulence as criminal charges against former President Donald Trump have been filed in a Manhattan Court.
Pardoning Trump would be best for the Democrats politically. Indeed, Biden’s act of good will would disarm and weaken Trump as he prepares to run for re-election in 2024. He and his supporters rely on the narrative that a conspiracy exists to destroy him and his base. A pardon would deprive him of the air he needs to breathe. Conversely, the continued partisan rancor among Democrats including Biden will fuel Trump’s bid for the presidency ushering in a new cycle of hyper-partisanship worse than during Trump’s presidency. With the stroke of a pen, Biden can help change the narrative and recommit the nation to a spirit of bipartisan cooperation.
Politics aside, there is a more important reason for a pardon. When President Joe Biden took office, he promised to be bipartisan. While Republicans have done little to bridge the distance between themselves and the president on a range of issues, the president’s rhetoric and actions have not lived up to his promise. A pardon of Trump, however, would go a long way toward extending an olive branch to the opposition party and would allow Biden to say, like Ford, that “our long national nightmare is over.” Biden’s pardon would be much less a gesture of kindness toward Trump and more an act of civic mindedness for the benefit of the nation. Trump, like any other American, is not above the law, but the nation needs to heal its wounds more than it needs to act against a former president.
History has shown that the political prosecution of opponents, justified or not, never ends well. The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts that targeted President John Adams’ political rivals by violating their right to free speech made him a one-term president, increased inter-party tensions, and nearly tore the country apart. The architects of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles sought to cripple Germany after World War I, which, in part, led to the rise of Hitler. Senator Joe McCarthy’s brazen and inflated rhetoric on Communists infiltrating the highest levels of government also caused irreparable harm to the nation.
American leaders today should seek to emulate neither Adams, nor McCarthy, but Abraham Lincoln. His Second Inaugural Address, widely touted as the best, stated in the most eloquent terms that good will was the true measure of democracy and civic responsibility:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds. . .”
If Lincoln had the wisdom to be charitable during the heated battle of the Civil War, then surely it is not too much to ask this of our political leaders today.
As much as Trump has deserved the antipathy that comes his way, his political opponents seem frenzied to bring him down no matter the cost to the country. Can Biden see past the political and partisan moment like Ford and Lincoln did? A more detached view and a quick glance at history informs us that he should.
Dr. Rafaele Fierro is a history and government professor at Tunxis Community College