NYT: Trump Said To Have Discussed Pardoning Himself | The Last Word | MSNBC

Michael Schmidt, who reported in The New York Times that Trump has discussed pardoning himself with aides, tells Lawrence O’Donnell that if Trump issues a self-pardon, the Biden Justice Department may decide “to investigate the president, prosecute the president, and take him to court” to affirm the principle that no one, including a president, is above the law. Aired on 1/8/2021.
» Subscribe to MSNBC:

About The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell:
Drawing upon his experience as a former chief of staff on the Senate Finance Committee and as an Emmy-winning executive producer and writer of "The West Wing," Lawrence O'Donnell examines the compelling and impactful political stories of the day. O'Donnell convenes diverse panels of guests, including a variety of politicians and cultural voices, to offer unique viewpoints and perspective. In his signature style, O'Donnell highlights the latest news developments and offers his take on the political stories driving the national conversation.

MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of politics headlines, as well as commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, Meet the Press Daily, The Beat with Ari Melber, Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace, Hardball, All In, Last Word, 11th Hour, and more.

Connect with MSNBC Online
Visit msnbc.com:
Subscribe to MSNBC Newsletter:
Find MSNBC on Facebook:
Follow MSNBC on Twitter:
Follow MSNBC on Instagram:

#NYT #Pardoning #MSNBC

NYT: Trump Said To Have Discussed Pardoning Himself | The Last Word | MSNBC

79 comments

    1. @Kyle Bishop Honestly, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what was said or what provoked the stupidity.
      I was merely pointing out the difference between federal law and state (district?) law.
      And that I hope *whatever* law may be invoked, that justice prevails.

    2. @Jim Urrata I agree with your distinction. I just want to point out the fact that nothing that happened was caused by him.

  1. The definition of pardon is an action one does upon someone else…not yourself so legally Trump pardoning himself is not going to work.

    1. @Sparky Jones It’s actually not clearly codified in US law the ability to self pardon, more of a concept that has been accepted for a while, that you can’t be your own judge. That’s why it would need to be a case seen by SCOTUS to be fully interpreted and precedent set.

      I do agree with what you set about how he would get around in with him resigning, then Pence signing a pardon for him, though I imagine even that would be challenged in court (if not necessarily successful). Let’s just hope that Trump doesn’t get smart, and gets a full law book thrown in his face.

    2. @Maria Woo That is an interesting point you bring up. One could argue that since he is now clear of all charges, he has no obligation to provide testimony, especially against immediate family, though the argument would be that since he effectively admitted guilt he could have testimony subpoenaed. Of course that is with the thought that he would tell the truth if/when he provided testimony, and that gets into him potentially commiting perjury.

      It would be a can of worms to unpack, and an interesting legal/thought exercise.

    3. @Nobody Special I’m not disagreeing with you guys on that. I’m just pointing out that, ‘that’ does not really help the ‘discussion’ as the ‘law’ has ‘very specific’ meaning on ‘Presidential Pardon’ … and it does not appear to include/exclude ‘self’.

    4. @Mr064582 Did not know about Burdock v US. Will have to look it up.

      But agree 100%, these incoming Trump pardons WILL be going to the SCOTUS on multiple reasons.

      Actually that is a good thing. Get these pardons sorted once and for all.

    1. In Trump’s own words “I hardly know the guy. I mean we’ve taken pictures together but I’ve taken pictures with thousands of people, you can’t expect me to know them all”.

    1. @Steve Mausehardt He loves you man…cause you can’t think for yourself😁. You want me to draw you pictures too🤣🤣🤣

    2. @angela anderson Lol! Orange’s lawyers filed over 68 bogus allegations and failed! SORE LOSERS still refusing to face reality. The people spoke and don’t want the reality show actor! YOU’RE FIRED!!!!

  2. Trump wanting to pardon himself or having Pence pardon him means that he is accepting the fact he is GUILTY.

    1. @Ken Thorsen considering at meetings Pence won’t touch his water until after trump touches his own water first, yeah, Pence will do whatever Trump wants him to do. in their world Trump is the Alpha and Pence is a Gamma that has no intentions of being an Alpha as long as Trump is.

    2. @Cooper Kooper I honestly don’t think he’s scared of going to jail. He’s never faced consequences for his actions before, why start now? And I fear if he does face jail time, the MAGA uprising will make the Capital heist look like child’s play. Even though he is a traitor and a criminal. I get where Biden is coming from when he says he doesn’t want to pursue prosecuting Trump. We need to move on.

    3. @Jerry Moody educate yourself lil bch if you accept a pardon you are accepting guilt for whatever. So yes he is accepting guilt if he pardons himself. Smfh dumb ppl

    4. @veewooks In my opinion, he’s really scared and very much terrified. He was to get away in the past. He’s a push pull guy. He advanced trying to intimidate people but when the situation gets much heated, he pulled back. One good example is this recent turmoil at the capitol hill. He incited his supporters for violence, am sure you’ll disagree but that’s a fact. Now after hearing with the invoking of 25th amendment and another impeachment, this crazy president, back on television, condemning the chaos and pledge to punish the troublemakers. He is the creator of fake news because he can’t deal the truth. He twisted, making conspiracy theories, innuendos, falsehood just about everything. He is a sore loser a bitter loser.

    1. @Ian Canuckistan I don’t think Putin wants Trump. He’s used Trump for all he needs and he won’t have any reason to shelter Dump.

    1. SCOTUS didn’t take the Texas case based on procedure, not merits. And in reality they said Texas didn’t have standing to sue another state…but that’s not true because states have sued eachother in the past… the reality, the courts didn’t want to overturn the decision..Probably because unscrupulous self-righteous nazis such as yourself, would call for death threats and doxxing the justices…

    2. @erospawn this comment is not entirely true. “The courts didn’t want to overturn the decision”, no, the courts asked for evidence to support the claims but none was provided. In one instance Rudi(y) Giuliani couldn’t even say in court that they were alleging election fraud, because he knew that they didn’t have evidence. Courts aren’t going to go on a fishing expedition, if Trump alleges fraud – evidence needs to be presented.

  3. The word “pardon” should be prohibited from Trump’s vocabulary, even if he bumps into someone by accident.

  4. Let him pardon himself and see what happens. It’s like me saying I can walk on water…no life guard on duty and I don’t know how to swim.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.