He’s dangling pardons again
by digby
It’s not like he’s abusing his office or anything. No need to consider impeachment:
During President Donald Trump’s visit to the border at Calexico, California, a week ago, where he told border agents to block asylum seekers from entering the US contrary to US law, the President also told the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Kevin McAleenan, that if he were sent to jail as a result of blocking those migrants from entering the US, the President would grant him a pardon, senior administration officials tell CNN.
Two officials briefed on the exchange say the President told McAleenan, since named the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that he “would pardon him if he ever went to jail for denying US entry to migrants,” as one of the officials paraphrased.
It was not clear if the comment was a joke; the official was not given any further context on the exchange.
The White House referred CNN to the Department of Homeland Security. A DHS spokesman told CNN, “At no time has the President indicated, asked, directed or pressured the Acting Secretary to do anything illegal. Nor would the Acting Secretary take actions that are not in accordance with our responsibility to enforce the law.”
Trump gets no benefit of the doubt for “joking” about dangling pardons to people who break the law for him. There’s just too much evidnce that he’s prepared to do it.
Recall that on the same visit, Trump told border patrol agents that they should just tell judges that “we’re full” if they the give them any trouble. They took the president seriously enough that they asked their bosses if they should follow his orders and were told they shouldn’t break the law.
He’s testing the boundaries to see how far he can go.
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