Longtime CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin explores why the Founding Fathers gave the power of pardon to the President and recreates the behind-the-scenes political melodrama during the tumultuous period around Nixon's resignation.
Toobin admirably weaves all these threads together. But what struck me most about The Pardon was how bizarrely quaint all the wrangling over Watergate seems now, compared with the onslaught of our frenzied political moment ... Toobin’s book offers little by way of consolation. Even in a democracy, “the royal prerogative of mercy” has its appeal, especially during cruel times. But as The Pardon makes exceedingly clear, it can also serve as a weapon for a leader who insists he can do whatever he wants.
Toobin makes a damning, nuanced case against Ford. Nixon had, at that point, committed the worst crimes in the history of the presidency, vividly and irrefutably captured on tape, and he escaped without any punishment. He received absolution without displaying remorse ... Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump has exposed the flimsiness of American institutions. Pressure-tested by his audacious assault on the civil services, those institutions instantly folded. But when a bridge tumbles into a river, the rivets and bolts don’t suddenly fail. They erode over generations. This is what happened in Washington: The unfettered power of the president kept expanding, Congress entered a state of sclerosis, the parties became apologists for their leaders, and courts fell into the hands of ideologues. As Toobin depressingly shows, even upstanding nice guys like Gerald Ford played their part in the collapse.
