Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told NPR on Thursday that while he was not sure if it was “good for democracy”, if elected, he would not stand in the way of a hypothetical Justice Department prosecution of President Donald Trump for crimes in office.
“Look, the justice department is not the president’s private business,” the former vice president sei. “The attorney general is not the president’s private lawyer. I will not be interested in the judiciary’s judgment on whether they think they should pursue the prosecution of anyone who thinks they have broken the law. “
The comments came in response to a question from LPR’s LPR Garcia-Navarro about comments made last year by sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), A forerunner of Biden’s election as vice president, said the Department of Justice “would have no other choice but to investigate Trump for his presidency.”
According to NPR:
Trump has been linked to alleged illegal activity by his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and investigators working for former special adviser Robert Mueller. What is not clear is whether federal authorities are investigating the president, or whether prosecutors can take action against Trump if he no longer enjoys the privileges that protect him from prosecutors as a sitting president.
Biden described the idea of prosecuting a former president as “very unusual” and said he would not consider the decision and would rather allow federal lawmakers to come to their own conclusions.
“In terms of saying, ‘I think the president has broken the law. I think the president did this, so go ahead and prosecute him’ – I will not do that,” Biden said.
Progressives have utter worries that Biden could follow the lead of his former boss, President Barack Obama, who said the country would “look forward, not back” when it came to his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.
