Former White House official Marc Short said he regrets working in the Trump administration because the former president pardoned violent criminals and family members as he left office.

During Donald Trump's tenure, Short worked as the White House Director of Legislative Affairs and as the chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

On Fox News Sunday, Short noted that Trump was not a lifelong Republican. He responded to Republican candidates who might consider pardoning Trump if they were to win the White House.

"And when it comes to pardons, you know, candidly, one of the most unseemly parts of the end of our administration was the pardons that Donald Trump gave to cocaine traffickers, to family members, to people guilty of violent crimes," Short lamented. "And so I think we have to have a real conversation. What would people actually do with the power of a pardon?"

"But I think if you look actually at even Donald Trump's record when it came to pardons, it was indefensible of people getting $750,000 to lobby us to try to gain a pardon," he added. "It's a meritorious question for all of us, how you'd handle a pardon and the power of it."