Fierce Trump critic Mitt Romney expresses bafflement over why President Biden didn’t pardon his predecessor as soon as federal charges were decided, Utah senator blocks Biden from moving forward “I should have fought like crazy,” he said.
Romney (R-Utah): “If I were President Biden, I would have pardoned him right away when the Justice Department filed the charges.” said on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhl.”
“Because it makes me, President Biden, a great man and the people I pardoned are dwarfs.”
Mr. Romney, 77, who is scheduled to retire when his term expires next January, supported impeachment against President Trump in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Mr. Biden, 81, has taken a backseat to his work at the Justice Department and rarely speaks publicly about his rival’s legal issues, but he laughed off questions about his predecessor’s pardons.
Attorney General Merrick Garland hired special counsel Jack Smith to lead two Justice Department investigations into the 77-year-old Trump in late 2022, shortly after he announced his bid for re-election.
Smith later filed the first of the now 40-count indictment against Trump for allegedly hoarding classified documents last June, and four for alleged 2020 election sabotage.
But Mr. Romney also argued that Mr. Biden “made a huge mistake” by not pressuring Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) to move forward with prosecution in the hush-money case.
“He should have fought like crazy to stop this prosecution,” Romney said of Biden.
“It was a win-win for Donald Trump.”
The president can only pardon federal crimes. President Trump faces 34 charges in Manhattan for falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments, and 10 charges in Georgia for election fraud.
Trump denies wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to all 88 counts. So far, no indictment has a trial date set aside from the ongoing hush money case.
Immediately after Bragg accused Trump of Mr. Romney immediately claimed that “New York prosecutors have extended their reach to file felony criminal charges to suit political purposes.”
Asked if it was Biden’s job to interfere with Trump, Romney insisted the president could pull the strings.
“I was there for a while, and if[LyndonBYoubetternotbringitin’Ifyoudon’tmoveforwardwe’regoingtokickyououtofoffice”heclaimed
Mr. Romney, who became the standard-bearer for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, has long made clear that he does not intend to pull the lever on the Nov. 5 presidential election, deeming Mr. Trump “unfit” to be president.
The Beehive State Republican also slammed an entourage of Republicans, including his vice presidential nominee, who flocked to President Trump’s Manhattan courtroom in a show of solidarity with the former president.
“I think it’s a terrible mistake for our country to see people attacking our legal system. It’s a huge mistake,” he told the network.
“I also think it’s obviously humiliating for people to stand outside the courthouse wearing red ties and try to run for vice president. It just made me feel awkward.”
Mr. Romney previously accused Republican lawmakers of “kneeling.”
The Utah senator also weighed in on the upcoming verbal showdown between Trump and Biden, which was announced in a very public exchange Wednesday.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have now agreed to face off in a CNN debate in Atlanta on June 27th, followed by a September 10th debate hosted by ABC News. This is much earlier than historical standards.
The former president had been eager for an additional debate with Fox News, but so far it appears the Biden-Harris campaign has canceled that debate.
“The image that comes to mind is the two old guys sitting in the back of ‘The Muppets’ – Statler and Waldorf, but I actually think there’s going to be a huge audience for this production.” We’re talking about it,” Romney said.
“I think people have very low expectations for what President Biden will do. I think they have much higher expectations for President Trump and his competitiveness.”
