The Washington Post editorial board slammed President Donald Trump for “leaving the White House just as he entered it: a total disgrace.”
In its opinion piece published Wednesday night, the newspaper tore into Trump for pardoning Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying during the Russia investigation. The editorial said “we can only hope” the pardon “will be his last official degradation of his office.”
The board, a frequent critic of the outgoing president, said that “at least for a couple more months” in Trump’s America “guilty is innocent; lies are truth; traitors are patriots.”
But the question “is not whether Mr. Trump has degraded the presidency,” it continued. “The question is how much long-term damage he has done.”
“Will future presidents now feel free to use the pardon power — or the other vast powers of office — with such nakedly crooked motives?” the board asked. “How many will calculate that they can make corruption appear to be patriotism as long as enough of the country wants to believe the lies they tell?”
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