During MSNBC's coverage of the 2020 Republican National Convention on Tuesday, host Rachel Maddow reacted to President Trump's pardon of Jon Ponder at the RNC by stating that Trump made the event comparable to the Roman Coliseum where "there's the gladiators before them and the emperor makes a show of showing his divine mercy, right, in deciding who lives and who dies." And that it is "kind of creepy" for the president to "fixate" on the pardon power.