President Donald Trump's polling with suburban women, whom he calls "housewives," may take another hit after a recent pardon Trump made earlier this week.
The President pardoned famous suffragette Susan B. Anthony to commemorate the 19th Amendment—the law ensuring white women the right to vote.
Trump made the announcement during a reception at the White House.
Watch below.
Pres. Trump has issued a posthumous presidential pardon for Susan B. Anthony, a leader of the women's suffrage movement who was found guilty of voting illegally -- as a woman -- in the 1872 presidential election. https://t.co/3NUtv0gH5Q pic.twitter.com/G2eNyxZw00
— ABC News (@ABC) August 19, 2020
Trump said:
"Later today, I will be signing a full and complete pardon for Susan B. Anthony. She was never pardoned. Did you know that? She was never pardoned...She got a pardon for a lot of other women, but she didn't put her name on the list."
Susan B. Anthony was arrested and charged with illegal voting in 1872, and summarily deemed guilty by the presiding judge, despite not being allowed to advocate for herself during the proceedings. After the guilty verdict, she refused to pay her fine until the end of her life.
Trump was proud to issue the pardon, but many experts on the matter said the pardon isn't at all what Anthony would have wanted.
Among the detractors of the move is the official Susan B. Anthony Museum, which rejected the pardon.
On news of a presidential pardon for Susan B. Anthony on August 18, 2020: Objection! Mr. President, Susan B. Anthony must decline your offer of a pardon today!
— S. B. Anthony Museum (@SusanBHouse) August 18, 2020
Anthony wrote in her diary in 1873 that her trial for voting was “The greatest outrage History ever witnessed." She was not allowed to speak as a witness in her own defense, because she was a woman. Judge Hunt dismissed the jury and pronounced her guilty.
— S. B. Anthony Museum (@SusanBHouse) August 18, 2020
She was outraged to be denied a trial by jury. She proclaimed, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty."
— S. B. Anthony Museum (@SusanBHouse) August 18, 2020
To pay would have been to validate the proceedings. To pardon Susan B. Anthony does the same.
— S. B. Anthony Museum (@SusanBHouse) August 18, 2020
The museum's account told the President what he could do instead.
If one wants to honor Susan B. Anthony today, a clear stance against any form of voter suppression would be welcome. Enforcement and expansion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would be celebrated.
— S. B. Anthony Museum (@SusanBHouse) August 18, 2020
We must assure that states respect the 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments to the United States Constitution.
— S. B. Anthony Museum (@SusanBHouse) August 18, 2020
Support for the Equal Rights Amendment would be well received.
— S. B. Anthony Museum (@SusanBHouse) August 18, 2020
People commended the museum for speaking out.
This is what honest people do. https://t.co/tY9Y8sjz43
— ⚖️ Stellaa (Democrats United) (@stellaaaa) August 20, 2020
Zombie Susan B. Anthony sounds as badass as the original. 🧟♀️ https://t.co/FtYG4cK7iv
— 𝚁𝚞𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚕 𝙽𝚎𝚒𝚜𝚜 (@russelneiss) August 20, 2020
Great thread 👇#SusanBAnthony https://t.co/ugbuLmZOoE
— Chief's Wife (@sharondigi) August 19, 2020
The museum's account was far from the only one to say Susan B. Anthony wouldn't have wanted the pardon.
As highest ranking woman elected official in New York and on behalf of Susan B. Anthony's legacy we demand Trump rescind his pardon.
She was proud of her arrest to draw attention to the cause for women's rights, and never paid her fine. Let her Rest In Peace, @realDonaldTrump.
— Kathy Hochul (@LtGovHochulNY) August 18, 2020
Pardon is an act of forgiving a sin or an offence. President Donald Trump's act of “pardoning" Susan B Anthony still underscores the fact that she indeed committed an offence by going out to vote.
Real tribute to Susan Anthony is to overturn her conviction, not to pardon her.
— Rohit (@RohitBJP) August 18, 2020
Trump & his @WhiteHouse idiots who have no knowledge of history engaged in a grotesque insult by "pardoning" Susan B. Anthony. Such a pardon contains in it an acceptance of guilt. Were she alive, Anthony would refuse it.
Let's read the words from her sentencing, starting here: pic.twitter.com/opqXEoFIv2
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) August 18, 2020
Just spoke to Susan B. Anthony in Heaven and she refused Trump's pardon.
— God (@thegoodgodabove) August 18, 2020
Susan B. Anthony was proud of her arrest and conviction, and that she notoriously refused to pay her fine.
She would not have wanted a pardon.
This isn't the first time @realDonaldTrump didn't listen to what a woman doesn't want, and yet did it anyway.
— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) August 18, 2020
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