Why would Ron DeSantis pardon Donald Trump if DeSantis wins the presidential election in 2024? Because it is the right thing to do. In a podcast with Megyn Kelly that aired on YouTube on Friday, she asked about a pardon for Trump and DeSantis explained his opinion. The Sirius XM host led into the question by acknowledging DeSantis’s talks about ending the weaponization of government.

DeSantis said yes to a pardon without actually saying yes.

“Well, what I’ve said is very simple: I’m gonna do what’s right for the country,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think it would be good for the country to have an almost-80-year-old former president go to prison.”

“So that’s a yes,” Kelly pushed.

“It just doesn’t seem like it would be a very good thing,” DeSantis continued. “And I look at Ford, who pardoned Nixon, and took some heat for it, but at the end of the day it’s like, do we want to move forward as a country, or do we want to be mired in these past controversies? And I think the public wants a fresh start, I think they want somebody that’s going to focus on their issues. We’ve had a lot that’s happened over the last five or six years. I get that, but going forward, we got all these issues that we’ve gotta deal with.”

“I don’t think it would be good for the country to have an almost 80-year-old former president go to prison.”

That is the core of his reasoning. Are we to think it’s the right thing to do to essentially deliver a death sentence to Trump because of overzealous political opponents in the DOJ? Trump showed bad judgment in how he handled some documents he may or may not have been entitled to have in his possession, and he showed documents to people who don’t have the appropriate security clearance. We know this because he taped himself. The special counsel has the tape. It’s bad all the way around but is it death sentence bad? Because if a man that age is sentenced to prison, he’ll die there.

I think the answer given by DeSantis shows both grace and common sense. It is much like the situation with Nixon. I remember that time and the country was very divided then, too. Republicans counseled a Republican president to resign before he was impeached. Nixon did that. We know that Trump’s impeachments were politically motivated and were wrong. Trump’s first impeachment was over a phone call to Ukraine. We now know that Biden did the same sort of thing in Ukraine and he skates. It’s complicated because Biden did it before he became president.

Trump isn’t going anywhere. He won’t back away from running for re-election. If he doesn’t secure the party’s nomination and then win the presidency, that is punishment enough.

The main point is that there is evidence, allegedly, of wrongdoing coming forward and additional charges have been added to indictments. Democrats and Jack Smith will go full-speed ahead because the goal is to keep Trump out of the White House. On a parallel track, Biden has his own problems. Can he be prosecuted for his mishandling of classified documents or, say, money laundering, as Congressional investigations are finding? Would impeaching Biden be enough or should he go to prison if he is found guilty? These are the questions that arise once one former president and a current candidate is prosecuted for political reasons.

I’m not saying Trump is innocent. He brought these problems on himself with the documents. He is also likely to be indicted soon in Georgia over what is being described as election interference from the 2020 presidential election in that state. But it is possible to acknowledge bad behavior and also think that a prison sentence for a former president is the wrong way to go. Sending Trump to prison would further divide the country because government agencies have been so weaponized against him. It’s so obvious now that many Democrats see it and acknowledge it.

DeSantis did well in his interview with Megyn Kelly. She asked about the ridiculous claims coming from Trump and his campaign that DeSantis is a RINO and a pawn of globalists.

On the @MegynKellyShow: "One of the criticisms I hear about you is 'he's too establishment'… You've heard Trump say 'globalist,' 'RINO'"@RonDeSantis: "That's all totally fabricated out of whole cloth… I have a RECORD: I beat Disney… We stood up to the global elites… pic.twitter.com/6nim8dKmF1

— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) July 30, 2023

Megyn came away from that interview with a good impression of DeSantis.

“He’s funny!”: @megynkelly reacts to her meeting and interview with Governor @RonDeSantis:

“He’s extremely knowledgeable about every single issue that I teed up to him. I mean, there was no issue on which he couldn’t go ten deep and it was interesting to hear him talk like… pic.twitter.com/0Vzkdsf6TE

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) July 29, 2023

I wonder if this will be a question during the Republican primary debate scheduled for August 23 on Fox. Whether Trump decides to participate or not, it would be a good time for the candidates to say if they will pardon Trump and why.