Did problematic, last-minute pardons by former President Joe Biden make us long for problematic, first-minute pardons by President Donald Trump?
They did not.
We’ve already lamented the sweeping pre-emptive Biden pardons for family members and politicians made on Inauguration Day. And applauded the moves by both presidents to provide merciful, proper pardons for some non-violent drug offenders and the welcome release of Leonard Peltier from federal prison.
But, along with a large percentage of Americans asked for their opinions on the subject, we are appalled by the blanket nature of Trump’s pardons and full exonerations for essentially every one of some 1,500 rioters, many of whom pleaded guilty to their crimes at the Capitol in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, who attempted to overthrow the legitimate election of a United States president.
There was zero attempt to separate out the protesters and rioters who merely trespassed at the Capitol from those who beat police officers with their own batons and threatened to kill Vice President Mike Pence that day.
It’s one thing to scream and bust a window after being ginned up by the falsehoods of an aggrieved loser of another term in the White House; it’s another to injure officers trying to protect the cradle of democracy in the republic and the lives of the people’s representatives simply certifying an election.
Even for some of the non-violent perpetrators pardoned, it’s hard to believe that erasing the felony record of Jacob Chansley, known as the QAnon shaman because of his antler headdress and body paint during the riot, warms the heart of many Americans.
“I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER… I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” Chansley wrote on X after being pardoned. “NOW I AM GONNA BY SOME (curse word) GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!”
That with his felony conviction expunged, the shaman can now go out and “BY” some guns like any other law-abiding citizen surely is pleasing to Chansley. Others may not share his joy. Sure, it’s not clear that the believer in the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by a Deep State cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles actually used the spear he brought into the Capitol that day, and all he pleaded guilty to was obstructing an official proceeding. It’s just also unclear why a once and current president would like to make carrying a firearm easier for a man who scrawled a note addressed to Pence saying “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!” that riotous day.
As recently as just the other day — Jan. 12 — Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News Sunday that “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
And now, obviously, his boss has pardoned all those who committed violence along with those who didn’t.
Trump claims his blanket pardons were necessary to remedy “a grave national injustice” and start “a process of national reconciliation.”
But as Jacob Sullumn of Reason magazine writes, “Such a reconciliation is impossible when the president is willing to excuse political violence as long as it is perpetrated by his supporters. Despite Trump’s insistence that he expected people inspired by his stolen-election fantasy to do nothing but protest ‘peacefully and patriotically,’ he is unwilling to draw that line in practice.”
