Members of Congress weighed in Monday on President Trump's declaration that he could pardon himself if needed.
Democrats expressed a much stronger resistance to the idea than Republicans.
"If a president can pardon himself, it's virtually a monarchy, at least as far as the president is concerned. If the presidents had the power to pardon themselves, we'd no longer be a democracy," [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer (D-NY) said from the Senate floor on Monday.
“As the Department of Justice legal counsel wrote four days before Nixon resigned, ‘Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the president cannot pardon himself,'" he added.
The few Republican lawmakers willing to speak out did so as generally as possible, mostly unwilling to criticize the president.
Republicans were largely silent on the unfolding legal debate, with a few exceptions.
“I think that there’s a constitutional authority for the president to pardon himself,“ Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said on Fox News. “I think it would be highly unlikely and, in this case, certainly unnecessary.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) called the discussion an “academic argument.“
“It sounds like a debate law students would have,“ he said, adding: “I think it’s a distraction because so far there’s been, on a bipartisan basis, the conclusion has been that there’s no evidence of collusion.”
Schumer: 'If a president can pardon himself,' this isn't a democracy (The Hill)
Democrats warn Trump on pardon powers: ‘You are not a king’ (Politico)