Rep. Dean Phillips Presses New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to Pardon Donald Trump

Former Democrat presidential primary candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is pressing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to pardon former President Donald Trump because “making him a martyr” would result in an “electoral boost.”

“Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim,” Phillips said in a Friday X post following Trump’s conviction in his hush money trial.

“@GovKathyHochul should pardon him for the good of the country,” the congressman argued. 

“You think pardoning is stupid?” he posed in a follow-up post on Saturday. “Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different.)”

Phillips ran against President Joe Biden for the Democrat nomination but suspended his campaign in March following major losses on Super Tuesday. 

“It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost,” Phillips added. 

The posts came after Trump became the first former president to become a convicted felon on Thursday, with a New York jury finding him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to cover up alleged affairs. 

Trump’s campaign raised $34.8 million from small-dollar donors by Friday morning, campaign officials said in a statement that Breitbart News obtained.

The former president’s son, Eric Trump, said the campaign had raised nearly $53 million in 24 hours in a Fox News interview later on Friday. 

“What’s really amazing, go back to 2016 for a second, the largest fundraising haul in history to that point, we did in one day, you know, $16 million,” the younger Trump told host Jesse Watters.

“And as of a couple of minutes ago, we just announced $52.8 million in 24 hours and we’re probably another five, six million dollars above that, based on the fact that that was exactly 24 hours from the indictment time, which was about 5:30 [p.m.],” he added.