OPINION:
On the heels of President Biden’s sweeping pardon of son Hunter’s crimes — both convicted and acknowledged, as well as any he may or may not have committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024 — comes this call from other Democrats: Hey, let’s get everybody pardoned for everything before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated!
Quite the concept. Why not? After all, why have a pardon for a crime committed, when you can instead have a batch of pardons for all kinds of crimes that haven’t even been formally alleged, accused and investigated?
In polite society, they call this preemptive pardoning. But it’s really called CYA. And if there’s one thing Democrats are great at, it’s covering their collective you-know-what.
So off to the presidential pardon circus they go.
“I think that,” Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Ed Markey said, during a recent radio show, “without question, Trump is going to try to act in a dictatorial way, in a fascist way, in a revengeful first year, at least of his administration toward individuals who[m] he believes harmed him. If it’s clear by January 19 that is his intention, then I would recommend to President Biden that he provide those preemptive pardons to people because that’s really what our country is going to need next year.”
Who could be on the list?
Liz Cheney. Hillary Clinton. Robert Mueller. Rod Rosenstein. Jack Smith. Kamala Harris. Joe Biden.
Joe Biden?
“Can Joe Biden Pardon Himself?” Newsweek asked in a recent headline.
“Don’t like the Hunter Biden pardon? Wait till Joe pardons himself,” the Kansas City Star wrote in another recent headline.
Hell’s bells. Democrats are going bonkers with last-minute lusts for power.
“Pardons need not follow convictions,” The Brookings Institution wrote. “The rationale for so-called ‘preemptive’ pardons is that there is no point in requiring a person to live in fear of conviction or to go through a trial.”
They’re afraid Trump is going to seek justice, the good old-fashioned way, using the good old-fashioned definition of justice — that is to say, to use the judicial system to enforce laws the Democrats have broken. As a preemptive measure, they’re labeling Trump’s plans for justice as “revenge,” and they’re painting his promises to the people to restore law and order as some sort of personal and angry crusade. So in response, they’re begging Biden for preemptive pardons for crimes and misdeeds Trump will discover they’ve committed and then punish. They want that get-out-of-jail card before they’re even sent to jail — before they’re even accused of crimes that could send them to jail.
It’s sort of like when believers accept Christ as their savior and ask for forgiveness for their sins, and He not only forgives, but forgets — and not just for the past, but for the future. Democrats think Biden can be their same sort of savior. They think he’s their messiah; they think he’s their last hope for freedom before accountability comes knocking.
“I hope that President Biden will also issue preemptive pardons to all of those people threatened by the injustice of what will become the Department of Justice in the Trump administration,” said Jill Wine-Banks, a former assistant special prosecutor during Watergate, Breitbart noted.
“That, of course,” she continued, “includes Jack Smith and all of his staff. … It includes President Biden himself, although we don’t know that anyone can legally pardon themselves.”
Go for it, Dems!
“He will need a pardon because he is going to be harassed and charged for no crimes whatsoever,” she continued, of Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, from longtime Democrat talker Eleanor Clift — this, in the Daily Beast: “Trump has threatened many of his adversaries, and he will soon have the power to make good on his threats. President Biden must act and use his pardon power to safeguard a lengthening list of people who are on the receiving end of Trump’s threats. They will say they’ve done nothing wrong, and they’re right. Preemptive pardons are problematic, a get-out-of-jail free card when you haven’t committed a crime. But they’re needed now that President-elect Trump is gearing up his revenge tour.”
This would be hilarious — except it’s not.
Democrats are such delusional dictators they truly believe the American people will suffer their mocking of the justice system in complete silence.
Thing is, the president-elect is not a buffoon. Neither is he weak or cowardly. Trump won the presidency with a significant mandate to bring about a government that is accountable to the people, but more than that, respectful of the Constitution. Biden can pardon his son, pardon his cronies, pardon himself even — or at least try. But this incoming White House along with the Republican majorities in Congress will take steps to rights these Democrat wrongs and eradicate the weaponization of the systems of justice that have taken place the last few years.
Democrats know their power is waning.
They fear their deeds will soon be exposed.
So they scramble to have their sins erased by the decree of their dear leader.
It won’t work; truth can never be abolished and will always, at least one day, come to light. But it sure is entertaining to watch the gaslighting and hypocrisy and desperation as it unfolds. Joe Biden pardons himself! LOL. And no doubt, his little biting dog, Commander, too.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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