(AFP) – US President Donald Trump floated pardons for allies and teased vetoes on Democratic legislation Monday, a day before elections that could see his Republican Party lose control of Congress.
In a New York Post tabloid podcast, the president previewed his post-midterms playbook, saying he’d liberally hand out pardons for allies. If, as polls predict, Democrats capture one or both chambers of Congress, they will have wide authority to launch investigations and hold hearings into Trump administration officials’ conduct — past and present. They’ll also control the legislative agenda, passing bills that promote their priorities, creating further headaches for a president who has until now had consolidated Republican power on Capitol Hill. But Trump made clear he is ready to veto anything he doesn’t like from a future Congress.
On the “Pod Force One” podcast, Trump was asked if he’d pardon “everybody who worked for you.” Trump responded: “I would not even think about — I’d do it.” “I did it for J6,” Trump added, referring to supporters convicted of or facing trial for participating in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the US capital. On his first day in office in 2025 after reelection, he pardoned some 1,500 of them.
The podcast host, Miranda Devine, predicted that Democrats could seek to go after Trump’s allies, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who was given a free rein to ax thousands of government workers and gut funding to programs at the start of the administration. Devine said Musk, who has also donated nearly half a billion dollars to Republican candidates in Tuesday’s election, might face arrest. Trump said, “It’s talk, but if it is talk, we’ll have to protect them.” Democrats have long pointed to multiple ethical concerns and conflicts of interest during Trump’s second term — a term in which the personal wealth of the president and his family has ballooned.
Congressional investigations can’t bring criminal charges, but they can force the subjects to testify and turn over evidence — which can be referred to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. The Justice Department will remain under Trump’s control, meaning actual criminal charges are a long shot. But even if no charges are brought, the spectacles could politically hem-in the president and his allies. Trump also took a jab at former Democratic president Joe Biden, who issued wide preemptive pardons for his family and many of his staff shortly before leaving office.
Trump claimed widespread success in governing over the last two years, but told the podcast this could be derailed if “people come in that hate our country,” referring to Democrats that could get elected on Tuesday. “I’ll become Mr Veto,” Trump said, before adding that he’d be open to making deals. “They’ll be sending stuff up, you veto it, and eventually, after a month or two of getting all vetoed… They come over and you make a deal,” the president said. Congressional can overcome the president’s veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers — a high obstacle when Democratic control could be held together by a razor-thin margin.
– Paul BLAKE
© 2024 AFP
