President Donald Trump announced he will posthumously pardon women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony on the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote.
Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting in an election at a time when only men were allowed to vote.
Trump announced that he would pardon Anthony on Tuesday morning, saying, “I will be signing a full and complete pardon for Susan B. Anthony. She was never pardoned.”
He added, “She got a pardon before a lot of other women. She didn’t put her name on the list. So she was never pardoned for voting, that’s right, she was guilty for voting. And we’re going to be signing a full and complete pardon.”
Trump announces full pardon for Susan B. Anthony on 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) August 18, 2020
Anthony was arrested for voting in 1872 pic.twitter.com/9SxVqGNjW9
Susan B. Anthony spent decades of her life fighting for women’s right to vote. She gained fame across the nation for her speeches but the suffragette died in 1906 — 14 years before the 19th amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
Trump has been trying desperately to appeal to a voting bloc that he calls “suburban housewives.”
However, recent polling shows women favor presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over Trump by over 20 points, according to the Washington Post.
Trump has boasted that he “has done more for women than just about any president in history.” And in a recent tweet, he signaled support for a Democratic bill that would honor the suffragettes with a monument in Washington, D.C.
