Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said in an interview on Fox News that if elected she would pardon former President Trump only if he were found guilty and would not consider preemptively pardoning him.
“I think you only do it if someone’s found guilty. So, you know, what I’ll say is this is about moving the country forward, and the last thing we want to see is an 80-year-old former president sitting in jail,” she told the network when asked if she would pledge to pardon Trump preemptively or only if he was found guilty.
“Instead, we want to say ‘OK, how do we put the past behind us and move forward as a country?’ And I think that by pardoning him that absolutely would move the country forward, instead of dividing it further. And so I think you always have to look at what’s in the best interests of the country,” she continued.
Trump is facing four indictments, including two from the Justice Department, one in Manhattan, N.Y., and one in Fulton County, Ga. The indictments pertain to an alleged hush money payment to an adult film actress, his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has denied wrongdoing in each case.
Despite the charges against him, Trump has maintained a lead in the GOP primary in early state and national polling, though Haley has been narrowing the gap against the former president in New Hampshire.
Fox News anchor John Roberts pressed Haley again on whether she would preemptively pardon Trump, noting that former President Gerald Ford suffered politically after he pardoned former President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal.
“I actually think you need to let it play out,” she said. “I would think President Trump would want to play it out just to be able to go and you know, you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty. And I would think that he would want to fight for his innocence first. So I don’t see a scenario where you go and you preemptively do anything. I think you have to always let things play out.”