"Winning Over Trump Supporters"... US Republican Presidential Candidates Promise "Trump Pardon if Elected"

DeSantis and Hailey Successively Mention Trump Pardon

Major Republican presidential candidates in the United States have consecutively announced that they would pardon former President Donald Trump if elected president, in an effort to court his support base.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded to reporters' questions about pardoning former President Trump on the 29th of last month (local time) in Iowa, saying, "I think we need to move forward as a nation, just as Ford did with Nixon," and added, "Division does not help the national interest." He referred to the precedent set by then-President Gerald Ford pardoning former President Richard Nixon, who resigned due to the Watergate scandal in 1974, expressing a positive stance on pardoning former President Trump.

When reporters repeatedly asked if he would pardon Trump, he confirmed, "Yes. I said so a few months ago." This referred to his statement after declaring his presidential candidacy in May last year, in which he said he would consider pardoning those involved in the January 2021 Capitol riot, including former President Trump.

Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a rising 'Trump challenger,' stated on the 28th of last month during a campaign rally in New Hampshire that she would pardon Trump if he were convicted in court. Haley emphasized, "A leader must consider what is best for the national interest," adding, "Putting an 80-year-old man in prison and continuing to divide our country is not in the best national interest." She further added, "The best national interest is to pardon him so that we can move forward as one nation and stop talking about it."

Another Republican presidential candidate, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, also advocated early on for pardoning former President Trump.

The fact that Republican presidential primary candidates are consecutively expressing support for pardoning former President Trump is interpreted as a judgment that candidates who oppose pardoning cannot become presidential candidates, given the overwhelming support Trump enjoys among Republican voters. Currently, former President Trump is on trial facing 91 charges related to four criminal cases, including incitement of the Capitol riot to overturn the election defeat, interference in Georgia's election, removal of national defense secrets, and hush money related to sexual misconduct allegations.

The Washington Post (WP) analyzed, "DeSantis and Haley, who are leading among the non-Trump Republican candidates, have been walking a political tightrope for months, trying to distinguish themselves from the former president while courting the Trump support base necessary to win the primary."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.