Jeff Flake: “I have been very supportive of what the administration has done.”

Any time that you stand and say, I own the shutdown, then you own it.

The Republican Party may believe or elected officials may believe that this will give them some short term benefit.

If you just dismiss all of that and just talk politics, at some point here soon, Republicans are going to have to decide whether or not they want to be tethered to the president politically.

The president's pardon power is nearly absolute. And so, yes.