With significant fanfare, Donald Trump was arraigned Tuesday in a New York City courtroom on charges relating to hush money payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels. The former president is, of course, no stranger to controversy, which has been his calling card since he premiered on the political stage circa 2015. He now has the ignominious distinction not only of being the first president to be impeached twice, but also of becoming the first president to be indicted on criminal charges.
The latter distinction comes with an asterisk. In 1974, Richard Nixon was pardoned by his successor, President Gerald Ford, for his role in the Watergate scandal before any charges were brought. The decision to pardon Nixon was not a popular one at the time. Democratic U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, by then a presidential aspirant, decried the pardon in no uncertain terms.
Yet in 2001, Ford was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his pardon of Nixon. Speaking at the event, Sen. Kennedy had reconsidered his opinion of the pardon: “I was one of those who spoke out against (the pardon) then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us.”
