President Biden should have included Donald Trump in his list of Christmas pardons.
He could have slipped it in — or somebody could have sneaked it on the teleprompter — when he announced the federal pardon of people convicted of the use or possession of marijuana on the eve of Christmas Eve.
If it blew up in his face, the White House could simply deny he meant it, or say he was confused, or they could just ignore it like it was a Chinese spy balloon.
Biden could have worked the Trump pardon into his pardon statement when he opened his remarks by saying, “America was founded on the principle of equal justice under the law.”
Trump is facing a slew of federal indictments accusing him of attempting to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.
Although he is not charged with the Jan. 6 “insurrection,” the Colorado state Supreme Court, all Democrats, said in a 4-to-3 vote that he was guilty of it anyway and kicked him off the upcoming state presidential ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to overturn the Colorado court.
Meanwhile, there is no truth to the report that the four judges who voted against Trump are in line to be named to the U.S. Supreme Court once the Democrats expand it and pack it from nine to 13 members.
Biden’s Trump pardon remarks would have added to his stature as an all-wise, compassionate and forgiving statesman, unlike the man he was pardoning who would bring back the firing squad.
It would also have answered criticism that Biden has politicized and weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice and its two tiers of justice in America, one to keep Hunter Biden out of prison and two to put Donald Trump in.
Or he could have waited until later in his pardon statement when he said, “Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith healers, civil rights activists, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect this core value that makes our communities safer and stronger.
“That is why today I am announcing additional steps I am taking to make the promise of equal justice a reality.”
It was at this point Biden could have shocked the nation by showing confidence and compassion — and helped his feeble re-election campaign — by saying magnanimously something I imagined like:
“So, my fellow Americans, I have also decided to pardon Donald Trump of all federal charges and indictments against him even though I believe he is an insurrectionist creep not worthy of the office of president.
“I do this with full confidence that I, like I said four years ago, will clobber him in the election or, like my father used to say at the kitchen table, give him a knuckle sandwich behind the high school gym. That’s not a joke.
“I believe in a fair fight and paying your fair share. That’s who we are as Americans. I’m not kidding. This is America and there is nothing we can’t do if we do it together, including re-electing me, saving our democracy and packing the Supreme Court.”
Of course, he did not say this, but if he listened to me, he would have.
The main problem in granting Trump a pardon would have been the distinct possibility that Trump would not have taken it, but instead would have attacked Biden for going soft and senile in offering it in the first place. “I am not going to accept a pardon from that creep,” Trump would have said.
In addition, he might have added that the way the Republicans and their Congressional impeachment inquiry investigation linking Joe and Hunter Biden to Chinese payoff money is going, Joe Biden might need a pardon from a re-elected Trump and not the other way around.
There is precedent for one president pardoning another. President Gerald Ford pardoned Watergate scandalized President Richard Nixon, who he succeeded in 1974.
Forget inflation, soaring grocery prices, high gas and energy costs, soaring illegal immigration, crime, drugs and war.
The question in the 2024 presidential campaign is who is going to pardon whom?
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
