Vice President Kamala Harris hinted that she would not forgive former President Donald Trump if she were elected president.
Harris sat down with NBC’s Hallie Jackson for an interview that aired Tuesday night.
Jackson noted that Trump continues to face federal charges and asked Harris if she would pardon her current political rival if he is convicted.
“I’m not going to get into those hypotheses,” Harris responded. “I’m focused on the next 14 days.”
Jackson then asked if there was “any part of you” that believes pardoning the former president “could help unify the country and move forward.”
“Let me tell you what will happen: I will be elected president of the United States,” Harris responded.
Vice President Kamala Harris hinted that she would not forgive former President Donald Trump if she were elected president.
The Republican candidate has already been convicted of 34 felonies in New York state for corporate fraud charges related to money payments given to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
Since these are state charges, only the governor of New York could pardon Trump, not a US president.
New York is currently led by Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and is unlikely to defer to Trump.
While the cases have been delayed, Trump faces federal charges for his role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 and January 6 elections, which is being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith is also in charge of the classified documents case, which would also amount to federal crimes.
The election interference case in Georgia is also a state-level case, so the pardon would have to be administered by the state’s governor, who is currently Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
Trump and Kemp have reconciled since the 2020 election, and Kemp is once again publicly supporting the 2024 Republican nominee.
Trump is the first former president in history to be charged and convicted of serious crimes.
The late Republican President Richard Nixon was never charged with any crime related to Watergate.
Nixon’s successor, President Gerald Ford, granted him a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed while serving as president on September 8, 1974, just a month after his resignation.
While Ford claimed he had pardoned Nixon so the country could move on from the Watergate scandal, many Americans were angry that the Republican leader never saw his day in court.
Agents working for Nixon’s re-election campaign had broken into the Democratic National Committee headquarters (in the historic Watergate building in DC) and the White House was involved in the subsequent cover-up, leading to Nixon becoming the first and only president to resign.