Haley Said She Would Pardon Trump if Elected President

On Sunday, Nikki Haley told the crowd at a Fox town hall that she would pardon Trump if the former president was convicted of a federal crime.

Not a matter of guilt

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“If you’re talking about pardoning Trump, it’s not a matter of innocence or guilt at that point, because that means he would have already been found guilty,” Haley said. “I believe, in the best interest of bringing the country together, I would pardon Donald Trump. Because I think it’s important for the country to move on.”

Moving forward

“We’ve got to leave the negativity and the baggage behind,” Haley explained. “I don’t want this country divided any further.”

Reasoning

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“I don’t think it’s in the best interests for America to have an 80-year-old president sitting in jail and having everybody upset about it,” Haley said. “I think this would be the time that we would need to move forward and get this out of the way.”

The reality

Polling released in late January and early February, however, indicates that the vast majority of Americans would not support a candidate convicted of a felony crime. A Gallup Poll released on Jan 26 found that just 23% of Americans would vote for a candidate convicted of such a crime by a jury.

More polling

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One poll found that 55% of voters in seven swing states would refuse to vote for Trump if he were sentenced to prison. Another found that less than two-thirds of Republicans would vote for Trump if he were convicted but remained on the ballot.

Lack of support

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In December, a New York Times/Siena College poll found that almost a quarter of Trump supporters also believe that the former president should not become the Republican presidential nominee if found guilty. Roughly the same number of his supporters said that they think he has committed “serious federal crimes.”

Following precedent

Nikki Haley Addressing the public — Illustration. Image by Samael1986 via Depositphotos.com

By pardoning Trump, Haley would be following in the footsteps of President Gerald Ford, who controversially chose to pardon Richard Nixon for all offenses that Nixon “has committed or may have committed.” Nixon infamously resigned from the presidency following the Watergate scandal.

Further elaboration

When asked on Fox in January if she would preemptively pardon Trump, Haley said, “I think you only do it if someone’s found guilty. So, you know, what I’ll say is this is about moving the country forward, and the last thing we want to see is an 80-year-old former president sitting in jail.”

The right path forward

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“Instead, we want to say, ‘OK, how do we put the past behind us and move forward as a country?’ And I think that by pardoning him, that absolutely would move the country forward, instead of dividing it further,” Haley argued. “And so I think you always have to look at what’s in the best interests of the country.”

Some support

Just over half the respondents to a poll released in June supported the idea of Trump being pardoned. However, while 80% of Republicans were in favor, only 52% of independents and 30% of Democrats agreed.

Nuance

Additionally, only 43% of respondents thought Trump would actually be convicted. Still, half of the respondents believed Trump should not run in 2024 due to the charges he faces, conviction or no conviction.

More nuance

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In August, an informal online poll conducted by the Tehlequah Daily Press in Oklahoma found a majority in opposition to Trump being pardoned if convicted of any crime. One resident told the paper that Trump shouldn’t be pardoned, pointing out that he was “a citizen of the United States.”