IF, AS SOME ARE URGING, HE BLANKET-PARDONS ALL ILLEGALS YOU CAN EXPECT THE MENTAL COMPETENCY ISSUE TO BE SERIOUSLY RAISED:
.@POTUS was deemed unfit to be charged in the classified documents case, but is now mentally sound enough to issue pardons and commute sentences? When and where do we draw the line that we don't let them cross?
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) December 23, 2024
Contracts, wills, and other legal actions are null and void if a party is mentally incompetent, as Joe Biden obviously is. The Congress and the Trump Department of Justice should investigate whether these pardons for depraved murderers are binding.
Who is making these decisions…
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) December 23, 2024
I should note that when Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton’s term was coming to an end, and he was under investigation for pardon-selling, they swore in his successor, Lamar Alexander, three days early to limit the damage and to prevent Blanton from pardoning himself. The Lieutenant Governor, John Wilder, referred to that as “impeachment, Tennessee style.” Ned McWherter, who was Speaker of the state House at the time, and later Governor, told me that they weren’t sure it was constitutional under the state constitution, but that if they were fighting it out in court later, Blanton wouldn’t be able to pardon anyone regardless. I don’t think Blanton every contested his replacement. But that was a bipartisan affair — Wilder and McWherter and Blanton were all Democrats, and Alexander was a Republican — and swearing in Trump early wouldn’t get the same kind of support from Democrats.