South Carolina Senator and Presidential Hope in 2024 Tim Scott avoid saying if he forgives Donald Trump if the former president is convicted of federal charges related to mishandling classified documents. “I’m not going to deal with theories, but I’m going to say that every American is innocent until proven guilty,” Scott told Fox’s Shannon sea bream on Sunday.
Instead, Scott trained his anger toward the Justice Department, which he accused of trying to “hunt down the Republicans.” “We must eliminate political appointments within the Department of Justice to restore capacity and integrity in the DOJ today,” Scott said.
Scott’s comments Sunday made him the latest Republican presidential candidate to weigh in on the question of the possibility of a Trump pardon, an issue that has quickly become a dividing line between hopefuls. Republican Party Hope for 2024.
Among current sectors, Trump’s strongest defender is biotech executives Vivek Ramaswamy. The longtime candidate has vowed to “forgive Trump immediately on January 20, 2025, and restore the rule of law in our country.” Last week, Ramaswamy appeared outside Florida federal court on the day Trump was impeached and said he had sent a letter to each of the 2024 Republican candidates asking them to publicly pledge to pardon Trump “or publicly explain why you won’t pardon.” Fellow businessman and the president’s foresight, Perry Johnsonalso devoted pardons former president and conservative radio host Larry Brotherhoods has also said that he is also “most likely”.
The prospect of pardoning the twice-indicted former president received a more lukewarm response from Nikki Haley. Last week, the former South Carolina governor said she “tends to support pardons,” though she called the discussion “really premature” and would certainly call the former president “extremely reckless.” with our national security”.
So far, two candidates—former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie and former governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson– opposed the pledge of amnesty. “I can’t imagine if he got a fair trial I would forgive him,” Christie said Wednesday, adding, “To accept forgiveness you have to admit your guilt. me.” Asked on Tuesday about other candidates floating Trump’s pardon, Hutchinson called the pledges “wrong,” “unwarranted” and “bad precedent.” “I want our candidates to show more courage and speak out about this and provide leadership,” he said.
Other candidates, like Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former vice president Mike Pence, followed Scott’s path, avoiding directly mentioning Trump’s possible pardon while vowing to attack the DOJ if elected. Using similar language to Scott, DeSantis pledged to do “house cleaning on the first day,” while Pence promised to “clean the house at the highest level” of the DOJ.
