Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. Do you think it would be a good idea if Joe Biden gave presidential pardons to us in advance — as well as anyone else Donald Trump might go after once he’s back in office?
Gail Collins: Ah, Bret, you bring up several — hey, maybe several dozen — issues that have come up this month, in which Biden behaved in a manner so peculiar it might have made the transfer of power look less terrible. That is, if the transferee had been anybody other than D.T.
Bret: From D.T. to J.B. and back to D.T. by way of loads of B.S. Go on.
Gail: Let’s start with Hunter Biden. I think we’ve already sorta disagreed on the president’s decision to keep his son out of the clink. You denounced it; I felt that given the horrendous series of family tragedies Biden has undergone, it was hard to blame him for being hyper-protective of the one surviving child of his first marriage.
Bret: Just not buying it. Biden’s entire presidency was supposed to be about restoring decency and law-abidingness to the White House after four years of Trump. Now he’s abused his presidential power on behalf of his repugnant son after spending the better part of a year lying to the American people by saying there would be no pardon.
Gail: OK, that no-pardon-promise is a major point on your side.
Bret: And it isn’t right to reply that Trump is just as bad. It just means Democrats won’t have a leg to stand on, politically, the next time they try to present themselves as the defenders of constitutional norms.
But getting back to the subject of pre-emptive pardons: Is that a good idea?
Gail: Believe I speak on behalf of many, many citizens when I say, What the heck?
