Jeffrey Toobin's "The Pardon"

 Donald Trump has brought pardons into our awareness.  A presidential  pardon is unique in that the president doesn't need Congressional approval and there is no expiry date.

The focus of "The Pardon" (2024) is on the pardon to Richard Nixon.  There are some similarities, but significant contrasts comparing the situation with regard to Donald Trump.

Pardons all have a political element.

Nixon seemed to feel that the promise of a pardon would encourage witnesses not to testify against him. 

Other political events opened up an opportunity to declare a new vice president.  Gerald Ford did not aspire to the responsibility.  He wasn't selected for his ties to Nixon, but also as they thought he was clean and could be manipulated.

Ford traveled around the United States, but avoided learning any more than necessary.  However as legal affairs moved forward he was let in what was expected.  Before too long Nixon did resign and Ford was made president. 

Nixon wanted a pardon, but not directly.  Ford wanted Nixon to admit involvement and tried to word his proclamation and Nixon's acceptance speech to in effect be an admission of guilt.  Nixon bent very little in that regard.  Having resigned he was eligible for a pension.

Ford wrestled with the notion.  He knew Nixon was guilty and the court proceedings were progressing slowly.  He was honestly concerned about the effect of dragging on Nixon's legal battles.  The trick was to get Nixon to admit guilt.  Not quite done, but pardon announced.

The initial response was negative, from both political parties, the press and the public.  They knew Nixon was guilty.  It doomed his election chances.

Attitudes mellowed a bit, years later.  Ted Kennedy had strongly criticized the Nixon pardon, but came to believe it was in the best national interest, even presenting Ford with the Profiles in Courage Award (in honor of brother John F. Kennedy's book) in 2001.  Bob Woodward, the top Watergate journalist also mellowed his attitude.  Jeffrey Toobin did not modify his opinion feeling Nixon was guilty and his fate should have had more impact on the public.

Toobin notes pardons from subsequent presidents.  George H.W. Bush pardoned some men who had been involved with the Iran-Contra case, that may well have impacted an election.  Jimmy Carter pardoned the draft dodgers which wasn't appreciated by many.  Surprising to me was that 50, 000 of those pardoned elected not to leave their adopted homes.

The book came out after Trump's 2020 election victory, but before he took office. Unlike other presidents Trump  developed his own procedures for his own personal needs.  During the Mueller Investigation Trump hinted there would be pardons for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort so they would keep secrets.  He did in fact pardon those who were convicted.  He also pardoned Joe Arpaio, a prominent racist and Charles Kushner, the father to Jared Kushner.  Some of those pardoned went on to commit more crimes.

At the end of his first term on January 6, 2021 Trump encouraged his supporters to help overturn what he declared an unfair election. People died and many have been convicted.  One of Trump's first acts of his second term was a blanket pardon on the rioters from January 6th. 

In summary, pardons can be positive as when a past injustice can be rectified.  On the other hand pardons are easily abused.  Toobin has written an excellent book

Bob Woodward's latest

It is frustrating that more American voters did not pay attention to many points made by Woodward.  Short term thinkers felt Biden was responsible for inflation, more so than the man who botched the pandemic.  They ignored the real dangers of climate change.  A number of responsible military and political people warned Trump was recklessly irresponsible.  His authoritative manner might seem commendable, but too often was harmful, often very harmful.

Bob Woodward is unique.  He is in a position that allows different powerful people to be honest, or at least it appears to be so.    Woodward's secret is that all his interviews (most of which are recorded) are done under the cover of "deep background" which meant the given  information could be used, but would not be attributed to anyone.  He did not get permission to talk to either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, but did have a lot of confidential interviews with key players. 

Joe Biden jumped to the defense of Ukraine, but also made it known there would be no American military combatants.  After October 7th he was quite adamant that he would support Israel, but no Americans would be fighting.  He also criticized Israeli settlements in Palestine and stated he felt there needed to be a two state solution.

You will learn about Netanyahu and Zelensky.  And Hunter Biden.  And Jake Sullivan.  And many others that have some responsibility for the way the world is headed.

All Arab leaders felt Hamas needed to be destroyed.  It also appears that Netanyahu supposed by even more extreme believers felt that not only Hamas needed to be destroyed, but that Palestine needed to be tramped down.  In the Mideast two driving forces are Hate and Fear.  I would add Face as the politicians feel locked in.  Woodward captures some of the hypocrisy that most politicians use to gain or maintain power.

He did note Biden's aging and that staff was trying to hide it.  It is unfortunate that not enough comments were made in public about Trump's deteriorating capability, but Woodward does note a few instances of it. 

The narrative goes up to the replacement of Biden with Kamala Harris.  She receives scant mention beforehand and there had to a cut off, but the debate she clearly won was not included.  Although I wish she had received more coverage,  I also regret more voters didn't get a chance to read it or at least hear discussions

It may seem that reading "War" is a waste of time after the election, but I disagree.  Woodward has given a lot of insights into people who are still making decisions that effect us all.  Perhaps more important he has also given us insights into how power works. 

An earlier blog post on a Bob Woodward book  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2018/11/fear-another-anti-trump-book.html

FEAR :ANOTHER ANTI TRUMP BOOK

The title comes from a quote by Donald J Trump to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in March of 2016, "Real power is--I don't even want to use the word--fear."  He has said so many things, but perhaps this is the core of his philosophy.  First learned of this title from Fareed Zakaria.

Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame has found a style that helps to uncover interesting information.  He conducts interviews as for background meaning he does not attribute quotes. His sources seem quite willing to provide some juicy details.  He had also done a lot of research of media information.  The book is full of details of interactions of the supporting cast who mostly tried to prevent Trump from doing a lot of what he wanted to.

You want to read this book quickly, because although it points in the direction Trump is headed it also is outdated as the live narrative is changing every day.  It carries up to about March 2018.  Trump continues to make inflammatory tweets and statements and Bob Mueller seems to quietly get more incriminating information.  "Fear" does give a fuller understanding of the background behind the headlines.

Going back to 2010 Trump decided to explore how he might run for president.  He had generally been pro choice, but agreed to publicly become pro life.  He had been donating slightly more to Democrats than Republicans, but explained that was because Democrats controlled much of urban projects and he needed to grease the wheels.  Steve Bannon said he needed to donate to Republican causes, but doubted he would because his donations were more related to what he wanted to buy, sell and develop to make money.

Some bits of advice he learned.  Steve Bannon felt  Hilary talked too much like a politician which hurt her credibility even when telling the truth.  Kellyanne Conway advised to not bother with national polls, but to focus on the Electoral College where he could leverage his resources better.

As one reads of many private conversations touching on incidents we have read and heard about a couple of conclusions leap out.  Trump  has many preconceptions and shows little interest in understanding the complexities of many issues.  He always wants to project strength and prefers to intimidate those he considers opponents.  He never wants to admit he has been wrong about anything.  Ultimately everything revolves around him.  Lots of indications of mental instability.  Some of the interesting conversations are with Lindsay Graham, Steve Bannon, Reince Preibus and John Dowd.  Woodward talked to or about a lot of others.

Trump had had experience with bankrupticies and was not frightened by them.  He felt his negotiating skills included risking bankruptcy even on a federal basis.

In general Trump distrusted international commitments and organizations.  He genuinely felt America had been poorly treated by the rest of the world. 

Gary Cohn comes out as a reasonable man trying to restrain and educate Trump.  One issue was a sequence planned to deal with China.  They were to seek a coalition of allies to gang up on China regarding intellectual property theft. But before that got organized Trump insisted on imposing tariffs on a wide variety of goods and countries as well as break up trade agreements.  Instead of accumulating allies for the original goal he alienated the prospect of a united front.  In the meantime Trump met the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping and felt he was a friend.  Cohn tried to explain that trade deficits were not bad, but failed and eventually resigned partially due to his failure.

Kim Jong Un, often considered a madman is not.  His father apparently executed scientists for their failures, but Kim has realized they need to learn from mistakes, thus advancing his nuclear and missile plans.  We are all aware of a twitter escalation of war threats, but behind the scenes Trump was planning a tweet to order military dependents in South Korea to leave which would have been a signal to North Korea of impending military action.  Fortunately he was deterred from the tweet.

Trump had made a campaign promise to repeal the "worst deal ever made" with Iran.  Many argued with him, but he was adamant.  Perhaps he was influenced by Israel supporters who feared Iran or maybe he was supporting Arab interests.  Personally I believe Saudi Arabia is the bigger trouble maker when compared to Iran, but the phobia against Iran is crippling.  As one observer pointed out Trump is friendlier towards North Korea.  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2020/01/who-deserves-blame.html

The Mueller investigation according to sources is very distracting to Trump.  It is often difficult to get his attention, but more so when public announcements are made.  Woodward obviously talked with legal staff and recounts many conversations between Trump and John Dowd.  With no legal training I would have to conclude there is no proof that Trump directly colluded with the Russians.  The book closes with a fancied quote from John Dowd, "you're a fucking liar," not actually said to Trump's face.