As former Vice President Joe Biden appears on the cusp of potentially winning the presidency, President Trump's allies are reportedly discussing how to tell him that he may have lost his re-election bid.
No winner in the presidential race has been projected yet, but as Biden pulls ahead in Pennsylvania, CNN reports that those around Trump are discussing who might have a tough discussion with the president, who has baselessly claimed he is being cheated out of a victory.
"People around Trump are working to identify who might be able to communicate to him the stark reality," CNN reports. "There has been talk of potentially Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump, though their willingness to lead a difficult intervention wasn't clear."
One way of doing so that has been discussed, CNN writes, is "framing potential conversations with Trump around the idea of preserving his brand for life after being president," and The New York Times also reports that Republicans are discussing how to bring up with Trump "what leaving quietly could mean for his family, his business and his own ability to remain in politics."
But according to CNN, Trump has "given virtually no thought" to the idea that he might not win a second term, and that idea was "not discussed widely among his team." He also reportedly does not have a concession speech prepared.
Trump has reportedly told people he does not intend to concede the race, and Axios' Jonathan Swan writes that "nobody I have spoken to on the campaign or in the White House believes that Trump would ever publicly acknowledge a loss, even long after the election is certified." The Times similarly reports that while some believe Trump could ultimately concede if a loss becomes clear, "he will most likely never publicly accept the result" of the election. Brendan Morrow
On the last night of his presidency, only a few hours after delivering an enervated farewell address, Donald Trump reminded us why he is one of the most bizarre characters in recent American political life by releasing his final list of pardons.
Trump pardoned some 73 persons on his way out the door and commuted the sentences of 70 others. Some of those on the receiving end of his clemency were famous. Most were not. There are not many lists on which Lil Wayne and Kodak Black will appear alongside Steve Bannon and various disgraced former Republican party officials. I was pleased that Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit whose sentence of 28 years in prison speaks more to the selective outrage of white suburban housewives in his home state than to the severity of his crimes, will be leaving prison soon.
Many of the comparatively unknown persons were obviously deserving: felons who had served their time honorably and devoted their lives to good works. Others, including the bird killer James E. Johnson, the Israeli spy Aviem Sella, three members of a clan of fraudulent South Dakota beef sellers, and many others guilty of financial crimes, seem more questionable. The strangest addition of all was that of Robert Bowker, who pled guilty three decades ago to the crime of illegally transporting 28 snakes owned by Rudy "Cobra King" Komarek to a reptile house in Miami. It appears that the aforementioned monarch offered Bowker a bribe of exactly 22 alligators, albeit one that he did not accept.
Perhaps even more interesting were those whose names did not appear on the list. Trump did not, as some expected, issue pardons to Republican members of Congress for the non-existent crime of challenging the Electoral College results in a handful of states, nor did he extend them to members of his family. Most important, he did force the interesting constitutional question of a self-pardon, likely because the legal action to which he is most vulnerable will come either from state governments or from the United States Senate, from neither of which a pardon would have shielded him. Matthew Walther
President Trump pardoned Stephen Bannon, his 2016 campaign chairman and one-time White House aide, late Tuesday amid a final flurry of executive clemency with just hours left in his administration. Bannon was arrested in August and charged with defrauding investors, mostly Trump supporters, through a group called "We Build the Wall."
In its pardon notice, the White House said Bannon had received "a full pardon" for "charges related to fraud stemming from his involvement in a political project," adding that the former Breitbart News chief "has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen." Trump has already pardoned another 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as well as longtime ally Roger Stone and other 2016 advisers and allies.
The "We Build the Wall" campaign raised more than $25 million, ostensibly to build border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon siphoned off more than $1 million through a nonprofit he controlled and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to another organizer, Brian Kolfage, who was also charged in the alleged scheme. Kolfage was not on Trump's pardon list. Trump distanced himself from Bannon and the fundraising project after the arrests, and aides believed Bannon was not going to get a pardon up until Tuesday, CNN reports.
Trump "made the decision on Mr. Bannon after a day of frantic efforts to sway his thinking, including from Mr. Bannon himself, who spoke to him by phone on Tuesday," The New York Times reports. After Bannon helped elect Trump and joined his White House, the two had a dramatic falling-out when Bannon told journalist Michael Wolff, for his book Fire and Fury, that Ivanka Trump is "dumb as a brick" and Donald Trump Jr. had acted "treasonous" by meeting with Russian agents during the campaign. But since last summer, "Bannon has slowly come back into the Trump orbit," The Washington Post notes.
Bannon may still be in legal jeopardy for his work with exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, and state prosecutors might still be able to charge him for any "We Build the Wall" fraud. Peter Weber