Standing in the White House Blue Room on Tuesday, President Donald Trump expressed surprise that Susan B. Anthony, the woman’s rights activist who was arrested and found guilty for voting in 1872, had never been pardoned.
„She absolutely would not have wanted the pardon,“ said Deborah Hughes, the president and CEO of the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House in Rochester, New York, where on Tuesday the news of Trump’s pardon was met with surprise. „Absolutely not,“ said Ann Gordon, a former Rutgers University professor who edited an extensive collection, „The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.“ „When you’re asking for a pardon, you’re saying, I did something wrong.“ Issued on the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, Trump’s pardon appeared designed to commemorate an American icon whose work helped transform American society. He first teased the pardon to reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, saying it would be directed at someone „very, very important.“ In a morning event marking the 19th Amendment anniversary, Trump revealed the pick and noted Anthony’s history. „She was guilty for voting,“ he said. „And we are going to be signing a full and complete pardon.“ Later, Trump appeared to acknowledge that Anthony may not have wanted a pardon — but said he had gone ahead and granted one anyway. „I actually asked the other day and they were talking about Susan B. Anthony, and she did that for other people and she didn’t want herself included. She wasn’t included in the pardon from many years ago,“ he said during a stop in Arizona. „Why can’t we pardon her?“ Trump said he asked his aides. „They said that’s the coolest idea I’ve ever heard. And it’s been very, very popular.“ The morning event, which like most of Trump’s official events took on a highly political tone, appeared designed to appeal to female voters. In the same speech, Trump repeated false claims about mail-in voting and criticized former first lady Michelle Obama for her convention speech the evening before.
