Biden urged to pardon Trump, heal nation
Joe Biden has been urged to consider pardoning Donald Trump to help to ‘‘heal’’ America, but only if the president admits he lost a fair election and does more to calm the anger felt by millions of his followers.
Trump’s impeachment cannot be erased but Biden could follow the example of Gerald Ford, who exonerated Richard Nixon, from criminal jeopardy to try to draw a line under Watergate in the 1970s.
Trump, 74, is considering a final batch of pardons of his own before he stands down on Thursday, including, perhaps, an attempt to pardon himself.
The threat of violence continues as inauguration day approaches, forcing Biden, 78, to abandon plans to take the train to the capital that morning from his home in Delaware, as he did on his daily commute to Washington as a senator.
The National Mall, which is usually packed on the day, is set to be shut after the authorities urged sightseers to stay away. Some 20,000 armed national guardsmen will be on duty amid concerns that no-one has been arrested for planting pipe bombs on January 6, found at the Democratic and Republican headquarters.
Hours after Trump’s second impeachment, he issued a video appealing for calm but did little to change supporters’ minds that the election was stolen.
A poll showed that half of Republicans opposed Biden’s inauguration.
James Comey, the FBI director sacked by Trump in 2017, said that Biden would ‘‘have to at least consider’’ a pardon. It would help ‘‘as part of healing the country and getting us to where we can focus on things that are going to matter over the next four years’’, he told the BBC.
‘‘Donald Trump, he’s not a genius, but he might figure out that if he accepts a pardon, that’s an admission of guilt.’’
Alberto Gonzales, attorneygeneral under George W Bush, said the country could not be healed without accountability for the insurrection and an acknowledgment by Trump that the election was fair.
‘‘Maybe he’s not willing to say that he lied about that but at least an acknowledgment that he was wrong about that,’’ Gonzales, 65, told CNN. ‘‘Without that, it is hard for the country to move forward and if I’m advising President Biden as to whether a pardon is appropriate, I couldn’t make that recommendation without that acknowledgment by Trump that he either lied or was mistaken about that.’’
The president has not called Biden to concede and is refusing to invite him for the customary handover talks.
On a trip to Texas on Wednesday Trump told allies that he won the election.
Lindsey Graham, a senator who was with him, told The Washington Post: ‘‘The president has come to grips with it’s over. He thinks he was cheated, but nothing’s going to change that.’’
A poll for Vox showed that 49 per cent of Republicans had doubts about the election and opposed Biden’s inauguration, 29 per had doubts but believed he should be sworn in and only 16 per cent trusted the results.
Gonzales added: ‘‘The notion that granting a pardon to unite the country, if Trump’s supporters still believe even after a pardon that the election was stolen, I’m not sure how much we achieve with the pardon.’’
In his video on the White House Twitter account Trump said: ‘‘Mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence.’’
The post came after he was impeached by 232 votes to 197 in the House of Representatives, a week after the attack on the US Capitol that left five dead.
Biden described the vote as a ‘‘bipartisan vote’’ in which members followed ‘‘the constitution and their conscience’’.
He added: ‘‘I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.’’ He was due to unveil a pandemic stimulus package yesterday as his first big piece of legislation.
Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who will become the majority leader in the Senate on Thursday, said that no matter the timing ‘‘there will be a vote on convicting the president for high crimes and misdemeanours’’.
Biden may ask Trump’s deputy defence secretary, David Norquist, to stay in the job while he waits for Congress to agree his nominee, Lloyd Austin.
The former army general, who retired in 2016, needs a waiver from Congress because retired officers are required to be out of uniform for seven years before becoming defence secretary.