Fierce Trump critic Mitt Romney voiced bewilderment at why President Biden didn’t pardon his predecessor as soon as the federal indictments came down, with the Utah senator saying “he should have fought like crazy” to keep them from moving forward.
“Had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him,” Romney (R-Utah) told MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle.”
“Because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy.”
Romney, 77, who is set to retire at the end of his term next January, backed both impeachments against Trump in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Biden, 81, who has taken a backseat to the Justice Department and rarely discusses his rival’s legal woes in public, laughed off questions about pardoning his predecessor.
Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped special counsel Jack Smith in late 2022 to spearhead the DOJ’s two investigations against Trump, 77, shortly after he announced his reelection bid.
Smith later first brought forward a now 40-count indictment against Trump over his alleged hoarding of classified documents back in June of last year and a four-count indictment over alleged 2020 election subversion efforts.
But Romney also contended that Biden “made an enormous error” by not pressuring Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, against plowing ahead with charges for the hush-money case.
“He should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward,” Romney argued about Biden.
“It was a win-win for Donald Trump.”
Presidents are only able to pardon federal crimes. Trump is facing a 34-count indictment in Manhattan over alleged falsification of business records to conceal hush money payments and a 10-count indictment in Georgia over alleged election tampering.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all 88 counts pending against him. Thus far, aside from the ongoing hush money case, no other indictment has a set trial start date.
Immediately after Bragg slapped charges against Trump, Romney quickly posited that “the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”
When pressed about whether it’s Biden’s job to run interference for Trump, Romney contended that the president has strings he can pull.
“I’ve been around for a while, if (Lyndon B. Johnson) had been president, and he didn’t want something like this to happen, he’d have been all over that prosecutor saying, ‘You better not bring that forward or I’m gonna drive you out of office,’” he argued.
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential standard bearer, has long made clear he has no intention of pulling the lever for Trump come Nov. 5, deeming him “unfit” for office.
The Beehive State Republican also roasted the entourage of Republicans, including potential vice presidential hopefuls that have flocked down to Trump’s Manhattan courtroom in solidarity with the former president.
“I think it’s a terrible fault, for our country to see people attacking our legal system — that’s an enormous mistake,” he told the network.
“I think it’s also demeaning for people to quite, apparently, try and run for vice president by donning the red tie and standing outside the courthouse and it’s just — I felt awkward.”
Romney previously chided that those Republicans were “prostrating themselves”
The Utah senator also opined on Trump and Biden’s forthcoming verbal showdown that was announced in a very public back-and-forth Wednesday.
Trump and Biden have now agreed to face off on June 27 in Atlanta in a CNN debate, and then in a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC News — much earlier than the historical norm.
The former president has pined for an additional debate with Fox News, but thus far, the Biden-Harris campaign appears to have swatted that down.
“The image that comes to mind is those two old guys on the ‘Muppets,’ you know, that sat in the back that — Statler and Waldorf — that comes to mind, but I actually think there’ll be a huge audience for these debates,” Romney said.
“I think people have very low expectations as to what President Biden will do. I think they have much higher expectations about President Trump and his competitiveness.”