Can the President Pardon Himself?
Plus: Trump and Vance: The Misogyny Is Intentional
Recently in The Bulwark:
BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: Reading Trump’s Mind: Go Low. Win.
JOE PERTICONE: Why You Should Take The Government Shutdown Threat Seriously
MARC CAPUTO: ‘Useful Idiot for Russia’: DNC Decides to Go Off on Jill Stein
Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a subscriber: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
KIM WEHLE: Can the President Pardon Himself?
[This article is excerpted from Kim Wehle’s new book Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works—And Why, just published by Woodhall Press.]
DONALD TRUMP IS THE FIRST PRESIDENT to realistically present the country with the possibility of a self-pardon. Presumably, if he had issued a preemptive self-pardon before leaving office in 2021, he would have pleaded it in his two federal trials: one in Washington, DC, for his plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and another in Florida for mishandling classified documents after he left office. (No presidential pardon, from himself or any other president, would shield him from his prosecution in Georgia state court for trying to overturn the 2020 election there or in New York state court for falsifying business records to cover up a campaign finance violation, for which he was convicted on 34 counts in May.) If Trump wins the 2024 election, it becomes much likelier that, for the first time since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, a president will issue a pardon to himself, or at least try to.
JILL LAWRENCE: Harris Is Smart to Say She’d Tap a Republican for Her Cabinet
“YES, I WOULD,” KAMALA HARRIS TOLD CNN, without hesitation, when asked last week if she’d name a Republican to her Cabinet. Why? She said she values diverse opinions, building consensus, and finding “a common place of understanding” in order to solve problems.
“I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who is a Republican,” said the vice president and Democratic presidential nominee.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Brian Schatz and Mona Charen: Democrats Don't Trust Happiness [YouTube: Schatz, Charen]
Beg to Differ: Toomey or Not Toomey 🔐 [YouTube preview]
Across the Movie Aisle: Revisiting 'A Quiet Place: Day One'
Shield of the Republic: The Men Who Made a Century [YouTube]
Did you know? Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice.
Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
📣Bulwark+ members can now listen to ad-free podcasts on Spotify! Learn more here.
A.B. STODDARD: Trump and Vance: The Misogyny Is Intentional
HILLARY CLINTON DIDN’T “HAVE THE LOOK,” Donald Trump said in 2016. Kamala Harris “doesn’t look like a leader,” he said last week.
Clinton was a former secretary of state. Harris is currently vice president. To Trump they both look . . . like women.On the day Harris sat down with CNN for an interview, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, posted a famous 2007 clip of a Miss Teen USA contestant bumbling through an answer to a pageant question. He wrote: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”
GABRIEL SCHOENFELD: H.R. McMaster on Working for a President Totally Unfit for the Job
CAN DONALD TRUMP BE TRUSTED once again with the reins of American foreign policy? The answer to this question is a resounding No. Trump is a grifter, an ignoramus, a skilled demagogue, a humorless clown, and manifestly unfit for public office at any level.
But if you had to make that case to an intelligent but uninformed visitor from, say, Jupiter, where would you begin?
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Tuesday! I look forward to seeing some of you at our (sold out!) Dallas event, and for those attending the Texas Tribune Festival. Overtimes may be shorter this week due to travel and event constraints.
I hope your Labor Day was as action packed as mine was: Cleveland Air Show, a needed Guardians win, and the Great Geauga County Fair. And the weather was perfect. While it was a little hotter in Cincinnati, the Western & Southern / WEBN Riverfest fireworks show went off, and what a show to miss. (There’s always next year!) I kid you not, Cincinnati’s Labor Day fireworks are some of the best in the country.
🎵On the Jukebox.. 🎵 Words Just Get in the Way by Richard Ashcroft.1
Ex-Porn Shop Employees Say Mark Robinson Was A Regular. He Denies It. (The Assembly NC)
More journalists are leaving big cities—and finding America, writes my friend Chris Moody at CJR. I’d like to think that the Ohioan in me never left, evidenced by some of your complaints about my flyover coverage, but being a coastal elite does at least pollute your opinion of things a little bit!
Trump gave this man clemency… And he did not use it wisely (Judd Legum)
An $11.5 million ad blitz… Our friends at RVAT are going to the battlegrounds. The message? “I’m a former Trump voter. I’m voting for Harris.”
Jimmy McCain decries Trump’s Arlington stunt… and vows to vote for Kamala Harris (CNN).
My Aunt's Story… It's the same story facing all Afghan women (Aqsa Rahmani, GCVF)
A famous cherry tree in DC was uprooted. Its clones help keep legacy alive. Viva Stumpy! (USA TODAY)
Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
—30—
Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
I am a big Ashcroft fan from and beyond his days with The Verve. They’re releasing remastered videos on the regular on his YouTube account and NOBODY is watching them. It’s bizarre. I have literally been the first viewer or first like on multiple videos.