Name: President Obama Won't, Not Can't, Pardon Edward Snowden
Uploaded: 2019-12-16
Duration: 2 min 32 s
Description: Snowden is still living in Russia.

[THEME MUSIC] ROBERT HACKETT: Welcome to Fortune Tech Debate where we debate the news of the day in two minutes. Today, we're talking about President Barack Obama, who recently said that he would not pardon Edward Snowden. So let's put two minutes on the clock. All right. Jeff, take it away. JEFF JOHN ROBERTS: Robert, yeah. Big news on Friday, President Obama's last foreign trip told a German newspaper he has no plans to pardon Edward Snowden. And not a big surprise. President Obama says he can't do it because Snowden [INAUDIBLE] charges. I think the real answer is he won't do it because Edward Snowden did something really serious and it would upset a lot of people to just give this man a pardon. ROBERT HACKETT: I mean, that's right. I mean, President Barack Obama, he has said that he can't do this until Edward Snowden appears before a court and faces these charges against him. But that's sort of a misleading statement, because he-- Obama definitely has within his power the ability to present a pardon that will obviate any of the potential wrongdoings that Edward Snowden did. So there definitely is a precedent for presidents to pardon people like this. Nixon got pardoned by Gerald Ford. JEFF JOHN ROBERTS: Draft dodgers got pardoned. Lots of people got pardoned. ROBERT HACKETT: Sure. JEFF JOHN ROBERTS: Edward Snowden though did something really serious. And I think the message you'd send, if you pardon him for leaking the country's national security secrets, no one's ever been pardoned for that before. ROBERT HACKETT: Well, hold on. Edward Snowden did a great service to this country. I mean, he exposed the mass surveillance apparatus of the National Security Agency. He exposed that they had been collecting metadata on Americans without proper oversight. And that led to some reforms. I mean, they've changed laws. They have added more supervision over these programs. So in some respects, Snowden did a great service. JEFF JOHN ROBERTS: That's well and good. He still broke a series of very serious laws, and he knew that. And he knew if he wanted to make that decision there'd be a price to pay. We can't simply let him off the hook. The intelligence community is outraged over what he did. And to simply let him walk home and come home as a hero, no, that doesn't work that way. ROBERT HACKETT: Well, hold on, because Snowden didn't just publish these documents by himself. He took them to media organizations. He let them review and assess what was in the public interest. JEFF JOHN ROBERTS: It's the same thing. He does it or gives it to the media, it's the same crime. ROBERT HACKETT: Well, time is up. For more Tech Debate, come back to fortune.com. [THEME MUSIC] 

President Obama Won't, Not Can't, Pardon Edward Snowden

Politics

Welcome to Fortune Activate were re debate The news of the day in two minutes. Today we're talking about President Barack Obama, who recently said that he would not pardon Edward Snowden. So let's put two minutes on the clock. All right, Jeff, take it away. Robert. Yeah. Big news on Friday, President Obama's last foreign trip told the German newspaper he has no plans to pardon Edward Snowden. Ah, and not a big surprise. President Obama says he can't do it because Snowden not in charge is. I think the real answer is he won't do it because Edward Snowden did something really serious and it would upset a lot of people to just give this man a part. I mean, that's right. I mean, President Barack Obama. He has said that he can't do this until Edwardson appears before a court on faces. These charges against him, but that sort of, ah misleading statement, because Obama definitely has within his power the ability to present a pardon that will, uh, obviate any of the potential wrongdoing that Edward Snowden did. So there definitely is a precedent for president to pardon people like this. Nixon got pardoned by Gerald Ford. Uh, draft Dodgers got pardoned. Lost people get pardon? Sure. Edward Snow, Notice something really serious. And I think the message you send if you pardon him for leaking the country's national security secrets No one's ever been pardoned for that before. Well, hold on. Everson did a great service to this country. I mean, he exposed the mass surveillance apparatus of the National Security Agency. Hey, exposed that they had been collecting metadata on Americans without proper oversight. And that led to some reforms. I mean, they've changed laws. They have added more supervision over these programs. So in some respect, Snowden did a great service. That's one good. He's still broke a serious, very serious laws. And he knew that. And he knew if you wanted to make that decision, there'd be a price to pay. We can't simply let him off the hook. The intelligence community is outraged over what he did and simply let him walk home and come home with a hero. No, that doesn't work that way. Well, hold on. Because student didn't just publish these documents by himself, he took them to media organizations. He let them review and assess what was in the public and the same thing he does it. Or does it have immediate the same crime? Well, time is up for more attractive eight comeback fortune dot com