Trump voters, you knew what you were getting when you cast your ballot for him.
A man who lies incessantly, who lacks any sense of moral decency, who loves dictators and hates democracy, who has no commitment to upholding the Constitution because his goal is only to uphold himself.
Yet you preferred Donald Trump over Kamala Harris. Maybe it was because the price of groceries was too high. Maybe it was because you wanted our southern border to be strengthened and undocumented immigrants to be deported from the United States.
I can understand those reasons. They make sense. Almost everybody dislikes inflation and a failure to comply with immigration laws.
But what progressives like me can't understand is how most Trump voters, along with almost all Republican politicians, are unable to disagree with their Dear Leader no matter how horribly he behaves.
On his first day in office, January 20, Trump pardoned all of the January 6, 2021 rioters who attempted an insurrection against the lawful transfer of presidential power following Biden's clear-cut victory over Trump.
Politico describes the pardons.
President Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, instantly laying waste to the Justice Department’s four-year drive to punish the first disruption of the transfer of power in American history.
The sweeping grant of clemency includes “full, complete and unconditional” pardons for some of the most notorious participants in the attack, including hundreds convicted of assaulting police, carrying firearms, destroying property or otherwise contributing to the violent rampage. Trump also ordered his Justice Department to shut down hundreds of pending Jan. 6 prosecutions, including many for violent crimes.
Among those freed from jail with a stroke of Trump’s pen: Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the far-right Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a seditious conspiracy related to the attack; Guy Reffitt, who carried a firearm during a standoff with police that helped facilitate the mob’s approach to the Capitol; and Ryan Samsel, the first rioter to breach police lines who was facing a long list of assault charges.
So much for Republicans being strong on law and order. The undeniable leader of the Republican Party has pardoned hundreds of people who attacked police officers on January 6, going so far as to call them "hostages" even after they were convicted of serious crimes by a jury of their peers.
Trump used the hostage line at most of his campaign rallies in the run-up to the 2024 election. Trump said that he was going to pardon the "January 6 hostages," though even Vance, his vice-president, expected that he would focus on those who didn't attack the police.
This is why I think all Trump voters should hang their heads in shame. You knowingly cast a ballot for a man who doesn't respect either our legal system or law enforcement. Another Politico story describes the political backlash that likely will follow Trump's pardons of January 6 lawbreakers.
Trump promised to “free” the Jan. 6 defendants on his first day back in office, and he has now followed through on that promise. But this will not be a one-day story, and Trump — and the Republican Party — may come to regret the political costs of this decision.
For starters, Trump’s blanket pardon is unpopular, and it could help to frame early perceptions of his return to the White House. After the election, multiple polls reported that somewhere around two-thirds of Americans opposed Trump’s promise to pardon the Jan. 6 defendants, including about two-thirds of independents.
It is not hard to understand why: Despite the best efforts of Trump and many of his political allies, most Americans have not forgotten about what happened that day, and most Americans have rejected the fantasyland version of events that Trump has sought to portray. That is why Trump’s approval rating collapsed after Jan. 6, even though it has since recovered.
That is why surveys showed most Americans wanted Trump to stand trial in Washington in the Justice Department’s prosecution alleging that he tried to steal the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6 riot. That is why most Americans repeatedly told pollsters that they thought Trump was guilty of criminal conduct. And that is why about half of the country said that Trump should have gone to prison if he had been convicted in the election subversion case.
...Trump’s mass pardon has also created a political problem for many of his fellow Republicans. He has once again cut the legs out from under his own vice president, who said less than two weeks ago, “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” Plenty of other Republicans took the same position that JD Vance did and will now have to twist themselves into knots explaining their past comments and their vocal defenses of Trump, who has once again made them look credulous and foolish.
That is just the short-term fallout. The potential for political backlash will linger for months and years to come. That’s because the Jan. 6 defendants are not just going to evaporate into society.
Trump has once again sent a disturbing message to his supporters: If you engage in political violence on my behalf, I will protect you. Tarrio, Rhodes and their associates should feel emboldened, and there is no telling what they will do with Trump now firmly behind them.
Even setting aside the prospect of further political violence, you can safely expect a fair amount of recidivism among those who were convicted — particularly the defendants convicted of violent conduct. That means that we may see and read stories in the years to come involving Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump who went on to commit more — and potentially more serious — crimes.
After Trump lost to Biden, yet never stopped falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him, Republican politicians were frequently asked if they believed that Trump had lost in a free and fair election.
Most would equivocate, saying wishy-washy stuff like "Biden is the president." Now a new question should be asked of every Republican politician at every level: federal, state, local. Do you support Trump's pardon of those who attacked police officers at the January 6 insurrection?
Any politician who doesn't respond with a firm "No," doesn't deserve to be in office, because they've shown their disrespect for the rule of law and those who enforce our laws.
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