GOP lawmaker Matt Gaetz calls for Trump to pardon Roger Stone
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a longtime defender of President Donald Trump, said the President should pardon longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone.
Asked on ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” just before Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison whether he thought Trump should grant Stone a pardon, the Florida Republican replied, “I do, and I think that it requires a review of the pardon power.”
Despite “View” co-host Meghan McCain’s objection that Stone was “the swampiest swamp creature,” Gaetz said, “Trump has pardoned 26 people. (Former President Barack) Obama pardoned over 1,700. (Former President) Bill Clinton pardoned 459.”
When asked whether pardon power should be reviewed and curbed, Gaetz argued that “if you look at the original intent of pardon power, it cannot be limited.”
“I would agree that Roger Stone should be pardoned if for no other reason than that there has been a double standard in this country,” he added, before listing several former Justice Department and intelligence community officials whom Trump and his supporters have accused of political bias and not having faced consequences.
McCain later addressed the topic of conservative female voters in 2020, asking Gaetz what he would say to women like her who “still hold back” over Trump’s comments disparaging women and veterans.
“Donald Trump has a unique ability to get people who don’t necessarily agree with him to vote for him,” he said. “And so I think for women, we’re going to have to make the argument particularly that 72% of the new jobs created in this economy have been filled by women.”
Noting that “a lot of women are concerned about the revenue in their family and whether it’s going to support careers and opportunity” for their families, Gaetz said that “with 7 million new jobs being created, people coming off of welfare, America is in a sense of great renewal,” calling Trump “a comeback President.”
