There have been times when certain presidential pardons have raised an eyebrow or two, but few considered them a big deal – save the pardon of Richard Nixon by President Gerald Ford. But then, Joe Biden, on his way out the door of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., started handing them out like Reese’s Pieces on Halloween. Pre-emptively pardoning several members of his own family was bad enough – many would argue this amounted to an unintentional admission that some of the Bidens had indeed been engaged in corruption, influence-peddling, and money laundering, which some people had suspected. Extending this executive absolution to Democrats (and two Republicans) who investigated the events of Jan. 6, 2021, was beyond the pale.
Of course, those are not the pardons that upset Democrats and their stenographers in the media. When President Donald Trump followed through on his promise to pardon the Jan. 6 protesters, one would have thought from the uproar that he had just announced he was replacing JD Vance with Vladimir Putin as his vice president.
When the president held his first press conference on Jan. 21, announcing the roll-out of a massive AI infrastructure project, the only thing reporters seemed interested in asking him about was the pardons he issued to those imprisoned for taking part in the Jan. 6 demonstration.
Police as Political Pawns
The most extreme of those on the left would probably have preferred to see every single one of those demonstrators, around 1,500, rotting in prison for another 15 or 20 years at least. But they can’t admit that, so they pretend to be troubled that among the recipients of pardons were people who had attacked police officers. The lack of self-awareness is certainly jaw-dropping. It’s as if the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots of 2020 never happened.
After BLM and various other extreme left-wing groups decided to use George Floyd’s death as an excuse to go on a rampage, violent mobs blazed – quite literally – a trail of destruction and chaos across several American cities. Businesses were looted and burned, cars were destroyed, at least one police precinct was set on fire, and a number of police officers suffered serious injuries. An officer in Ferguson, MO, suffered brain damage after being attacked by BLM rioters. These same activists marched in the streets, openly calling for the murder of law enforcement.
Of those arrested during the 2020 riots, many had their charges dropped, and the same people who now claim to be outraged by President Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons were practically cheering the rioters on. Funds were set up to bail them out – promoted by elected Democrats, including Kamala Harris. The sympathizers even objected to the use of the words “looters” and “rioters” to describe these criminals.
Certainly, not a single prominent voice on the left was raised in anguish over police officers being attacked. And none of them have expressed more than a token word or two of sympathy over the injuring or killing of any police officer in the United States either before or since the 2021 Jan. 6 protest.
Jan. 6 Pardons Right a Terrible Wrong
On that day in the nation’s capital, no police officers were killed – despite false media reports. None sustained life-threatening or life-changing injuries (because the establishment media would have paraded like circus elephants any who did). No businesses were destroyed, no cars were set on fire, and no stores were looted. The Jan. 6 protesters, if one wishes to call them rioters, might’ve been the most well-behaved and disciplined rioters in history – except for perhaps 20 or 30 individuals, who may or may not have even been Trump supporters.
The extent of the damage? A few windows in the Capitol building were broken, and a few items were pilfered – items paid for with American tax dollars. The worst thing that happened that day was the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman by a Capitol Police officer – whom the Capitol Police and congressional Democrats then went to extraordinary lengths to protect.
Yet those 1,500 or so people who turned out because they genuinely believed Trump was robbed of victory in the 2020 election and have since been charged seem to have been railroaded out of sheer malice, spite, and hatred of Trump. President Trump – and many of his supporters, if not most – see this wave of pardons as righting a wrong that was both a symptom and a cause of the political divisiveness that has scarred the nation for too long.
By contrast, Joe Biden handed his son an 11-year blanket of immunity. He spared brutal killers the death penalty, protected several other family members – even though they have supposedly done nothing wrong – and immunized congressional investigators who, if Trump is to be believed, destroyed evidence in order to present a one-sided show at trial.
The ethical contrast between the current president and his predecessor could not be more obvious. And if the pardoning power of the president has been tainted at all, there can surely be little debate about which of them is responsible.
