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The Nixon pardon in constitutional retrospect
National Constitution Center ^ | 9/8/23 | NCC Staff

Posted on 05/31/2024 12:55:35 PM PDT by EBH

In a July 2014 panel hosted by the Post, Woodward called the pardon “an act of courage.” He had talked with Ford decades after the pardon and said the former President made a “very compelling argument” for his actions based on national security and economic needs.

The late Senator Ted Kennedy said in 2001 that while he initially opposed the pardon, he had come to accept it as the best move for the country. And Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor and a Democrat, wrote about the pardon shortly after Ford’s passing in 2006.

“Did Ford make the right decision in pardoning his predecessor? The answer to that question is more nuanced than either the howls of outrage that greeted the pardon three decades ago or the general acceptance with which it is viewed now,” Ben-Veniste said in a commentary for the Post.

“The decision to pardon Nixon was a political judgment properly within the bounds of Ford's constitutional authority,” he argued. “Jerry Ford acted in accord with what he sincerely felt were the best interests of the country; that there was no secret quid pro quo with Nixon for a pardon in return for resignation; and that Ford, a compassionate man, was moved by the palpable suffering of a man who had lost so much.”

But in the months after the pardon back in 1974, most Americans didn’t approve of Ford’s move. In a Gallup poll taken 43 years ago, 53 percent of those polled disapproved of the pardon. However, in a 1986 Gallup poll, 54 percent of Americans said they now approved of the presidential pardon.

(Excerpt) Read more at constitutioncenter.org ...


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: biden; goodofthenation; nixon; trump
The difference between us and them.

There will be no Presidential Pardon for Trump at this grave time in our Nation. Instead 'they' choose to tear the country apart. In their lust for office they forsake the Nation and in the very collapse will how nothing but dust and ashes of a once great history.

My heart breaks for freedom loving people everywhere as the shining city on the hill turns gray and dark.

In their lust for power, it will slip through their fingers like the sands of time. And the tighter they grip, the less and less they will possess.

1 posted on 05/31/2024 12:55:35 PM PDT by EBH
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To: EBH

Obama’s and Biden’s use of the FBI to spy on Trump was way worse than Nixon covering up the spying done on Dims at Watergate.


2 posted on 05/31/2024 12:57:38 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: EBH

Ted Kennedy was “critical” of the Nixon pardon? I wonder if he was “critical” of his own kid glove treatment in the Massachusetts courts after he abandoned MJ Kopechne to drown in his car.


3 posted on 05/31/2024 12:58:26 PM PDT by laconic
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To: EBH

“There will be no Presidential Pardon for Trump at this grave time in our Nation”

These were state charges not federal.


4 posted on 05/31/2024 1:02:35 PM PDT by JSM_Liberty
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To: Tell It Right

No doubt about that right there.

But why do WE never do anything about it?


5 posted on 05/31/2024 1:03:17 PM PDT by EBH (America Blackmailed, The True Story of the World War...Coming Soon (1/21-))
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To: EBH
But why do WE never do anything about it?

The people on our side who are young enough to riot all have families and jobs.

6 posted on 05/31/2024 1:07:22 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: EBH

DJT would not take a JoeyBoy pardon. he’s going to win on appeal and has every intention of showing what lengths Ds will go to to keep him out of the WH.


7 posted on 05/31/2024 1:09:37 PM PDT by avital2 ("n)
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To: JSM_Liberty

These were state charges not federal.

I know I’m preaching to the choir, but how could there be state charges in a federal election case? Or, how could a state’s attorney try a federal case?


8 posted on 05/31/2024 1:17:32 PM PDT by TiGuy22
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To: EBH

Hochul will pardon Trump a week or so after Merchan passes a sentence of 180 days home confinement.She will do this because in NY a pardon does not expunge the felon’s record, so Trump will remain a convicted felon. She will do this because it will cause a chaotic convention while giving the appearance of clemency and still allowing the Dems to call Trump a felon.


9 posted on 05/31/2024 1:43:02 PM PDT by xkaydet65
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To: EBH

.


10 posted on 05/31/2024 2:57:38 PM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: EBH

It destroyed his chances for re-election but it was the right thing to do.


11 posted on 05/31/2024 3:29:57 PM PDT by TBP (Decent people cannot fathom the amoral cruelty of the Biden regime.)
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To: EBH

If Trump wins, he intends to pardon himself. He should think about also pardoning Biden on humanitarian grounds and watch the libs howl.

Maybe even the Klintoons?

It might destroy the liberals.


12 posted on 05/31/2024 3:31:36 PM PDT by TBP (Decent people cannot fathom the amoral cruelty of the Biden regime.)
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To: TiGuy22

They manipulate a state offense (misdemeanor) of falsifying business records into a felony by arguing that it was to cover up another crime. The alleged underlying crime is Federal, but the alleged crime to cover it up is a state offense.

BTW, the FEC, DOJ, the SDNY, and Bragg’s predecessor as Manhattan DA all looked at the case and concluded there was no crime.


13 posted on 05/31/2024 3:34:21 PM PDT by TBP (Decent people cannot fathom the amoral cruelty of the Biden regime.)
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To: avital2

What good is doing that if it fails to change the hearts and minds of the average democrat voter?


14 posted on 06/01/2024 7:31:55 AM PDT by EBH (America Blackmailed, The True Story of the World War...Coming Soon (1/21-))
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To: EBH

They wanted to get Nixon for one reason, and one reason only. His involvement with HUAC.


15 posted on 06/01/2024 7:32:26 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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