Former FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday said he thinks President-elect Joe Biden should consider pardoning President Trump for allegedly inciting the Capitol riot after he takes office.
The House of Representatives voted 232-197 Wednesday to impeach Trump for alleged “incitement of insurrection” in connection with the mob chaos at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis asked Comey if he thought Biden should pardon Trump in the same fashion that President Gerald Ford did his predecessor, Richard Nixon after he resigned over the Watergate scandal in 1974.
“I don’t know, he should at least consider it,” Comey told Maitlis. “As part of healing the country and getting us to a place where we can focus on things that are going to matter over the next four years, I think Joe Biden is going to have to at least think about that.”
FAST FACTS
- Whether or not the impeachment results in a conviction, it marks a historic moment in that no prior U.S. president has been impeached twice.
- A trial could go on for weeks — if it takes place at all.
The earliest the Senate could receive the article of impeachment would be Jan. 19, a day before Biden’s inauguration, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
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