Chaka Fattah: “Reclaiming my time, we have, and it must be just inherent for politicians, selective amnesia. We kind of remember what…”

“Reclaiming my time, we have, and it must be just inherent for politicians, selective amnesia. We kind of remember what we want to remember, and we forget what we want to forget. Now, it has been uttered on the floor of the House that no President has done some broad swath of clemencies or pardons. Well, it was President Ford who offered and President Carter who implemented a clemency or amnesty for hundreds of thousands of people who had evaded the draft during the Vietnam war. This has nothing to do with the implementation of the laws set by our Congress. This right to the Presidency of pardons and clemency is given in the Constitution. The point here is that it is just another effort, this consistent drumbeat about our President. This will not be the law at the end of the day when this bill is passed. I oppose it, and there is no President that is going to sign away their executive authority. It would diminish the power of the Presidency. And perhaps for the majority if they were to gain this Presidency again--and I am sure they will on some election--they wouldn't want to diminish the power of the Presidency. I think it is just ill-fated and it is focused at a particular effort at this moment, but it does not represent a historical fact that a President has not provided broad exemption or clemency or pardons in our past. I yield back the balance of my time.”