Now Biden Should Pardon Tony Fauci
He should start with Jack Smith, but there many Americans in danger from a weaponized Justice Department. Even reporters.
Now that President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter to protect him from Donald Trump’s intent to prosecute his political enemies, he shouldn’t stop there.
He’s opened the door. The MAGA camp is predictably outraged. While he’s still got the superpower of pardon, he might as well use it where he can to defend truth, justice and the American way. That way, pardoning his own son won’t look selfish.
He should preemptively pardon Jack Smith, Robert Mueller, Merrick Garland, Brad Raffensberger, Fani Willis, Letitia James, E. Jean Carroll, Judge Juan Merchan and every judge who has ever issued a ruling that made Donald J. Trump unhappy.
There is no other way to spike the guns of a vindictive incoming president.
He should pardon Tony Fauci. Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong. In the eyes of millions of Americans, he’s a hero for standing up to President Trump during the pandemic and telling the truth — that the virus would not “just go away,” that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine would not cure it, that wearing a mask was sometimes a good idea, and so on.
But the danger that he will be prosecuted is real. Many in the MAGA camp have publicly lusted for it. Elon Musk has called for Fauci’s prosecution. (“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci”) So has Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So has Marjorie Taylor Greene. So has Ted Cruz.
Many medical experts have done exactly what Dr. Fauci did. They went on television and gave their honest opinions that the president was wrong about various aspects of the pandemic. That’s perfectly legal under the First Amendment and, under libel law, mere opinions are protected. But a motivated prosecutor can go after you for anything — tax evasion, hiring an undocumented cleaning woman, writing a prescription for a friend who is not technically a patient. They can break you financially with legal fees just proving your innocence.
President Biden should also pardon the heads of Operation Warp Speed and the chief executives of Pfizer and Moderna. Their vaccines saved millions of lives, but President Trump publicly accused Pfizer and the FDA of delaying their test results until after Election Day so the Democrats could win.
While we’re at it, I’d like a pardon too. And I’m asking on behalf of lots of science journalists who said what they thought during the pandemic.
I think I’m too small a fish to bother with, but you never know. I did say on Christiane Amanpour’s show in May 2020 that our “headless chicken” response to the pandemic back then was the president’s fault, not China’s. I also said he lacked a third grade understanding of science because he had suggested injecting bleach and pushing UV lights into lungs. I was punished and served my time — but that was by The New York Times, for saying Trump’s C.D.C. chief should resign over the agency’s failure to produce a working PCR test for two months while the rest of the world had them. An imaginative prosecutor could find something new.
I can’t even imagine how many political journalists, starting with Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker of The Times, also need protecting.
And let’s not pretend that there’s something sacred about Presidential pardons. Innocent turkeys get pardons every Thanksgiving.
Donald Trump pardoned Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner. He has promised to pardon everyone convicted in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt.
Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon preemptively, before he was charged with anything. Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, Patty Hearst and his own brother, Roger Clinton Jr. Jimmy Carter pardoned 100,000 draft dodgers.
And while he’s at it, President Biden should also pardon himself, for every act he’s ever committed — or may commit up until January 20, 2025.
One way or another, the question of whether the President can pardon himself is going to be tested in front of the Supreme Court this decade. It might as well be decided based on the case of an innocent man — and that will force the Trump Justice Department to argue that a President can’t pardon himself.
Donald G. McNeil Jr.’s partially autobiographical book, The Wisdom of Plagues: Lessons From 25 Years of Covering Pandemics, will be available in paperback in January.
