Vivek Ramaswamy left Republican voters scratching their heads after he said in an interview that he wants to evaluate giving pardons to members of the Biden family if he’s elected president.
That stood in contrast to recent calls by Ramaswamy for a special counsel to criminally investigate the Biden family for its business dealings and alleged influence peddling.
“After the I am leading the great revival. After we have shut down the FBI, after we have refurbished the Department of Justice, after we have systemically pardoned anyone who was a victim of a political motivated persecution — from Donald Trump and peaceful January 6 protests — then would I would be open to evaluating pardons for members of the Biden family in the interest of moving the nation forward,” the 38-year-old biotech millionaire told The Post.
“It is a broad theme of this candidacy, leading us to a national renewal rather than a national divorce. It’s part of a broader vision of an American revitalization,” he added.
Ramaswamy is obviously playing off the post-Nixon era, in which Nixon was preemptively pardoned over possible charges stemming from the Watergate scandal. Then-President Gerald Ford claimed he did so in order to stop furthering divisions within the country. I think there’s a big difference between the two situations, though.
For one, Watergate was mostly a joke of a scandal, especially by modern-day standards. That Nixon might have ended up prosecuted on process crimes is a fair bit different than what the Bidens are accused of.
For example, Hunter Biden was been credibly alleged to have trafficked women. Certainly, there’s ample reason to believe he violated FARA violations regarding his overseas dealings. Never mind the current charges Hunter Biden is facing from the DOJ, as rigged as that process feels at times.
As to Joe Biden, if he is implicated criminally, it would likely be for bribery. Would Ramaswamy be interested in pardoning a president who accepted bribes as vice president? Further, given Ramaswamy didn’t say only he’s open to pardoning Joe Biden, I can only assume he is actually talking about pardoning Hunter Biden and other family members (such as James Biden). Certainly, that’s the way the Post read it given the headline they ran with after interviewing him.
I’d caution Ramaswamy that going down that road would not unite the country and allow it to move forward, as he suggests. Instead, it would be seen as yet another in a long list of examples of Democrats not having to face justice for crimes Republicans are put in prison for. Hunter Biden deserves to go to prison. Other members of his family might deserve that fate as well depending on where the evidence takes things. To give the Biden family a free pass would be catastrophic for trust in the government and the legal system.
So while I understand Ramaswamy is a very positive-thinking guy, if he’s going to evaluate anything, it should be re-evaluating this idea because it’s a bad one.
