You may remember Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota from the handful of days when he attempted to mount a primary challenge to Joe Biden. That effort never got off the ground and his latest stunt may not fare much better. Phillips has been watching the trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan along with everyone else and he believes he's come up with a solution. He has begun petitioning New York Governor Kathy Hochul (who is also a Democrat) to preemptively issue a pardon to Donald Trump. It's not that he's a fan of Trump. He calls Trump almost every ugly name in the book. But he believes that Trump is being made into a "martyr" by all of this and it's hurting the Democrats' chances in November. (Fox News)
A House Democrat who previously posed a primary challenge to President Biden called for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon former President Donald Trump for "the good of the country," insisting his conviction is only helping the presumptive Republican nominee's campaign.
"Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim," Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., wrote in a post to X on Friday. "@GovKathyHochul should pardon him for the good of the country."
In a follow-up post to social media on Saturday, Phillips wrote: "You think pardoning is stupid? Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different.)"
As with most things these days, Phillips made his pitch on social media.
Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim.@GovKathyHochul should pardon him for the good of the country.
— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) June 1, 2024
Before we start pointing our fingers and chuckling about this, it's probably worth pointing out that what Phillips is saying isn't totally bonkers. The facts we've seen very recently suggest that he's probably correct. Rather than helping Joe Biden and the Democrats, the conviction of Donald Trump only drove up his approval numbers higher and resulted in a record-breaking haul of campaign cash for him. If Judge Juan Merchan actually has the audacity to sentence Trump to prison or even place him under house arrest to keep him off the campaign trail (which we can't rule out), it's not difficult to imagine the country being even more enraged, driving up Trump's numbers further.
From that perspective, Kathy Hochul probably could avoid some future pain for her party by stepping in as soon as the sentencing is complete and pardoning Trump. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for her to do it, however. If she were to pardon Trump, Hochul would become a pariah inside her own party, particularly among the hard-core Trump haters who would see her action as a betrayal, letting the fish off the hook just as they believed they would get him into the net.
Phillips went on to say that the convictions had "energized Trump's base" and that the underlying strategy has "backfired" on those in the Democratic Party who "thought that it would be the salvation." Again, it's hard to argue with him and the facts seem to support that conclusion, at least for now. But it's also interesting to see a prominent Democrat admitting that there was a strategy behind the prosecutions of Donald Trump and it was political in nature. It never had anything to do with justice or the equal application of the law.
Unfortunately for Congressman Phillips, it may be too late for the Democrats to pull off any type of course correction. At this point, they may be forced to ignore the First Rule of Holes and simply keep digging. Trump's enemies wanted these convictions and now they have them. Even if Trump receives nothing more than a fine, they will still be hanging out there like a red flag in front of a bull. Nobody, not even Kathy Hochul is going to be riding to their rescue.
