I’ve been reluctantly thinking about the 2020 Presidential Campaign, so I suppose I’ll kick off the fun with a look at Senator Warren (D-MA) and her latest campaign ploy. I had recently mentioned that she’d made the mistake of venturing in President Trump’s territory, but her new tactic seems to be an attempt to dictate where a future battle will be fought, as found on her blog:
So let me be perfectly clear, in the way that everyone who might be President next should be: If I’m elected President of the United States, there will be no pardons for anyone implicated in these investigations.
Everyone who might succeed Donald Trump as president should adopt the same policy. Starting with Vice President Mike Pence.
This means no pardons or commutations for anyone who is prosecuted and sentenced as part of the Mueller investigation.
In order to move away from Trump’s use of the pardon, and thus away from his field of battle, she defines its use:
The pardon and clemency powers are supposed to be about granting mercy to the powerless — not immunity for the powerful.
A populist phrase that might catch some attention in Trump’s populist base. On the other hand, it’s also a veiled threat to the current Republican leadership, as toothless as it might be. She’s saying she’s expecting more guilty pleas and convictions.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Republicans react. Dispassionately analyzed, it’s a bit hollow, isn’t it? But for those who may have pursued their ambitions without inhibitions, it must seem menacing.
In the end, though, I would have been more impressed if she’d made a slightly different promise: to not pardon Democratic office-holders for crimes while in office. And then to express the belief that there won’t be any cases to consider.
