White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday fielded questions surrounding President Trump’s latest controversial remarks that he has the “absolute right to pardon” himself if charged with a crime.
Trump in a tweet Monday morning stirred the pot by saying in reference to the ongoing special counsel investigation that “numerous legal scholars” have stated that he, as President, has the “absolute right to pardon myself.”
“But why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?” he added.
Trump went on to call Robert Mueller's investigation a “never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!”
The President later wrote, “The appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!”
Sanders was pressed to explain Trump’s tweets at Monday’s White House press briefing. She said that “certainly, no one is above the law,” adding that the President does not believe that he’s above the law because he “hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Thankfully, the president hasn’t done anything wrong and wouldn’t have any need for a pardon," she said.
Trump’s tweets have sparked outrage among Democrats and the liberal news media, accusing him of acting like a despot and calling for his immediate impeachment if he were to issue a pardon for himself in any case.
There's no precedent for a self-pardon by a sitting U.S. President. The executive pardoning power described in the Constitution has been a matter of legal debate.