Donald Trump started the week with an announcement that was strange, even by his standards. In a middle-of-the-night missive published to his social media platform, the president wrote that Joe Biden’s pardons for Jan. 6 committee members were, as the Republican put it, “hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT.”
The assertion — without precedent in American history — was apparently based on Trump’s belief that (a) his predecessor used an “autopen” to sign the pardons; (b) documents signed by autopens don’t count; and (c) Biden suffered from mental deterioration to such a horrific degree that he wasn’t aware of his own policies and preferences.
In keeping with his usual m.o., the incumbent president offered no evidence to substantiate any of his claims. What’s more, my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin — who has legal expertise that I lack — explained in a great piece that Trump’s pitch has no real basis in law.
What I was curious about, however, was how and whether the White House would defend Trump’s latest broadside against constitutional law, as the president claimed to have a presidential power that did not, and does not, exist.
A few hours after publishing the online item, Trump told reporters, in reference to his effort to invalidate some of Biden’s pardons, “It’s not my decision — that’ll be up to a court — but I would say that they’re null and void.”