Donald Trump just gave something away by suddenly threatening to pardon Michael Flynn
Donald Trump is coming off one of the most embarrassing weeks in the history of the United States presidency, and he’s headed into anther bad week. So where is Trump’s head? He posted this tweet today, which gives away quite a lot:
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So now it is reported that, after destroying his life & the life of his wonderful family (and many others also), the FBI, working in conjunction with the Justice Department, has “lost” the records of General Michael Flynn. How convenient. I am strongly considering a Full Pardon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2020
Donald Trump is a desperate man whose presidency is falling apart by the hour, and he knows that if he loses the election, he’ll very likely end up in prison for his crimes. So his behavior could become unpredictable. But up to now, Trump has shown a highly consistent pattern. When Trump does something awful, he usually tries to do it quietly, in secret. When he publicly threatens to do something awful, he very rarely ends up actually doing it. Keep in mind that while Trump has pardoned several people, he still hasn’t pardoned a single one of his co-conspirators, which would open up a legal can of worms for him.
The takeaway here is that Donald Trump is probably just trying to change the headlines by making yet another deranged threat that he doesn’t intend to follow through on. Sure, Trump could go ahead and actually pardon Michael Flynn. But he wouldn’t just magically get away with it. Such a corrupt high profile move, during a national crisis, would only make things worse for him, not better. Don’t let Trump scare you into paralysis with this kind of thing. He’s playing with an empty hand right now.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report