Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reiterated his vow to pardon former President Trump “on day one” in the wake of the former president’s mounting legal troubles.
“I stand on the side of justice when I say I will stay true to my commitment to pardon Trump on day one, unambiguously and more importantly, call on Biden and the Department of Justice to drop these prosecutions in the meantime,” Ramaswamy said in an interview on Fox News.
Throughout his presidential campaign, the biotech billionaire entrepreneur has pushed back on the numerous charges brought against Trump and has pledged multiples times to pardon the former president if elected in 2024.
Ramaswamy said the four indictments against Trump “set an awful precedent” in the country.
“General rule of thumb, if you’re going to indict a former U.S. president who is running for president in the middle of an election, at least don’t make it novel legal theories that have never been tested in court,” Ramaswamy said. “And yet, that’s exactly what’s the case here in all four of these cases, and that is just shameful.”
He also pointed to a new Emerson College poll that shows him tied for second place with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the Republican presidential primary race.
“It would be easier for me if Donald Trump were eliminated from competition, that’s not how I want to win,” Ramaswamy said. “That is not right, because that’s not the way we do things in the United States … I do think we have an establishment that spans both political parties that is fundamentally hostile to one man who happens to be one of my opponents in this primary.”
Trump currently faces dozens of charges across four separate cases, making him the first former president to be indicted for an alleged crime. A grand jury in Georgia indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants earlier this week over an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state, which Ramaswamy called a “political persecution.”
Earlier this month, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury over his attempts to remain in power following the 2020 election.
He also faces an indictment in Florida, where he is accused of mishandling classified documents, and another in New York for falsifying business records related to alleged hush money payments made to an adult film actress.