“I have been betrayed by my country, and I have been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump. Whether you voted for him because he promised these pardons or for some other reason, you knew that this was coming, and here we are.” — Former DC police officer Michael Fanone.
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“That,” former President George W. Bush reportedly said after Donald Trump‘s first inaugural address, “was some weird shit.”
Eight years later it’s even weirder and far, far shittier.
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Where on earth should we begin? With Trump’s graceless, charmless, and bitter American Carnage II speech? His blizzard of orders? His conspicuous fondling of the oligarchy? The obnoxious display of the billionaire bros, leavened only by Mark Zuckerberg’s leering fascination with the cleavage of Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend?
Or the way that Elon Musk’s weird salute reminds us that he’s all out of fuqs to give about looking like a Nazi?
How about the new president’s bizarre fetish for renaming gulfs and mountains? His grafty new meme coins? His attack on “birthright citizenship”? Or the way that yesterday was the climax of the far-far-right’s wettest fever dreams?
Unfortunately, the media’s coverage of yesterday’s weird shitshow was lamentably lame. Last night, Oliver Darcy wasen fuego in his critique of the media’s subdued approach.
Across the entire television news landscape, the reporting on Trump’s inauguration lacked firepower. The profession’s stable of news anchors and correspondents who branded themselves as truth-telling journalists willing to hold power to account were present on screen, but their fervid spirit had unmistakably evaporated. It was like the invasion of the body snatchers — familiar faces delivering the news, yet devoid of the passion and conviction that once defined them, as if their former selves had been hollowed out.
Most of the coverage failed to reflect the bizarre gaggle of conspiracists and loons that packed the event. And, notes Darcy, “most networks almost entirely avoided using terms like ‘twice-impeached’ or ‘convicted felon’ when discussing Trump during the hours and hours of special coverage offered to viewers.”
In fact, no one on the Mark Thompson-led CNN (which found time to interview an outside expert about Melania Trump’s outfit choice) used either of those terms a single time, according to the closed captions search that I conducted. Yes, really.
It was hard to keep up with the firehose of Trumpism Monday, but as my friend Harry Litman wrote, we can’t let the mass, wholesale pardons of the seditionists “get lost in the tsunami of wickedness.”
“They are, and will remain, a deep stain on our history.”
You knew the pardons were coming, because Trump told us over and over that he would free the rioters he incited to attack the Capitol.
When he launched his re-election campaign at a rally in Waco, Texas, Trump stood with hand on heart as a recording of the so-called “J6 Prison Choir” was played, singing what’s become its anthem, “Justice for All.”
“Our people love those people,” Trump declared at Waco. “If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly. ... And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”
So, what happened last night wasn’t a surprise. But it was worse than we thought. Even some in Trump’s inner circle were shocked at the breathtaking scope of the jailbreak.
Some of Trump’s own advisors had urged him to conduct a case-by-case review to weed out the most violent of the rioters. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned,” Vice President JD Vance said earlier this month. In recent days, AG-nominee Pam Bondi and Republican lawmakers including Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), condemned rioters who attacked police. Back in November, even Trump insisted that he wouldn’t issue a blanket pardon: “I’m going to do case-by-case,” he told Time magazine, “and if they were nonviolent, I think they’ve been greatly punished.”
But that turned out to be bullshit.
Late yesterday granted Trump clemency “to virtually everyone prosecuted by the Justice Department, from the plotters imprisoned for seditious conspiracy and felons convicted of assaulting police officers to those who merely trespassed on the restricted grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.”
In one of the earliest acts of his second term, Trump signed a proclamation issuing a “complete and unconditional pardon” to all but 14 people convicted for any offenses related to the attack at the Capitol as his first term drew to a close. He cut short the sentences for the other 14 — nine members of the Oath Keepers and five members of the Proud Boys [who were convicted of seditionist conspiracy].
So who were they? At least 387 assaulted police or members of the media. At least 289 committed less violent or non-violent felonies like “federal rioting, property destruction, and firearms counts.”
Last year, Khater pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, and earlier this year he was sentenced to more than six years in prison.
Presumably, he is one of the “Jan. 6 hostages” that Donald Trump says he will set free on his first day back in office, should he be elected in November, per a social media post that reads, "My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!"
[Trump’s get-out-of-jail card also included] Brian Christopher Mock, who bragged that he “beat the s--- out of a police officer,” according to someone who spoke with the FBI. Mock, who was wielding a baton as a weapon, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and another two years of supervised release for a total of six felonies, including obstructing police officers during a civil disorder, and four counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.
[And] Peter Stager, who was sentenced to 52 months in prison for assaulting a Capitol police officer with a flagpole. In a video taken on Jan. 6, Stager declared that “every single one of those Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy, that is the only remedy they get.” Is he on Trump’s list?
What about Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy? Or Daniel “DJ” Rodriguez, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for driving a stun gun into the neck of police officer Michael Fanone during the most vicious clash outside the Capitol. After his sentencing, an unrepentant Rodriguez shouted “Trump won!” as he left the courtroom….
By dangling pardons for the rioters, historian and MSNBC analyst Ruth Ben-Ghiat notes, “Trump’s not just trying to keep people loyal to him. He’s also letting elites and his base know that any future violence they plan or commit in the interests of returning him to power will be forgiven.”
The thing is, we have pictures and videos of what happened that day.
A comprehensive review of bodycam footage by the Justice Department found “approximately 1,000 events that may be characterized as assaults on federal officers” who were trying to defend the Capitol against the Trumpist mob. Since Jan. 6, 2021, the DOJ has obtained more than 718 guilty pleas, including 213 defendants who pleaded guilty to felonies including seditious conspiracy and assaulting federal officers. Another 171 defendants were also convicted.
It seems mind-boggling that Trump, the self-professed “law and order candidate,”isplanning to wipe out the 6 1/2-year sentence of Ralph Joseph Celentano III, who grabbed an officer at the Capitol and threw him over a ledge, an act the judge described as a “truly cowardly and despicable thing to do.” Yet if we are to take him at his word, these are the people Trump is promising to return to civilian society.
There’s also Ronald Colton McAbee, the off-duty sheriff’s deputy who grabbed the leg of a fallen police officer and dragged him toward the mob. McAbee was wearing reinforced knuckle gloves, and when another officer tried to help his downed colleague, McAbee swung at the officer’s head and body. Videos captured the scene, reported Axios: “He then lifted the first downed officer and they both slid down a set of steps, with McAbee falling on top of the officer, who was hospitalized.” McAbee was sentenced to 70 months in prison.
According to the FBI, Vincent J. Gillespie grabbed a riot shield from police and can be seen in footage using the stolen shield to ram law enforcement officers while “screaming ‘traitor’ more than once and ‘treason,’ as he points to a law enforcement officer.” A federal judge sentenced him to 5 1/2 years in prison for assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; civil disorder; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.
Peter Schwartz went to the Trump-inspired insurrection armed with a wooden tire knocker and assaulted police with a chair and chemical spray. After the attack on the Capitol, he boasted in a text message that he had thrown “the first chair at the cops,” bragging, “I started a riot.” Prosecutors noted that Schwartz had nearly 40 prior convictions for assaults and threats to officers. He’s now serving a 14 year sentence for assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon, interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, and disorderly conduct and commission of an act of violence on Capitol grounds.
Peter Webster, an ex-New York cop, was “seen repeatedly pushing at the barricades and then swinging a flagpole at Officer Noah Rathbun before shoving through the police line and tackling the officer.” Webster is currently serving a 10-year sentence for charges including for assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
On Earth 2.0, I would spend some time talking about Joe Biden’s own use of the presidential pardon and the precedents that they created. Suffice it to say that the Founders would have been appalled at the way it has expanded to provide blanket immunity to those who enjoy the favor of the Oval Office.
Nota Bene: No one should be surprised if Donald Trump — largely immunized from legal accountability by the Supreme Court — offers sweeping pre-emptive pardons to anyone in his Administration who breaks the law over the next four years.
While I’m sympathetic to Biden’s use of the pre-emptive pardons to protect the innocent from Trump’s retribution, I also agree with Adam Schiff, who thought they were ‘unwise’.
“I continue to believe that the grant of pardons to a committee that undertook such important work to uphold the law was unnecessary, and because of the precedent it establishes, unwise,” Schiff said in a statement. “But I certainly understand why President Biden believed he needed to take this step in light of the persistent and baseless threats issued by Donald Trump and individuals who are now some of his law enforcement nominees.”
Earlier, former Congressman Adam Kinzinger also explained why he did not want a pre-emptive pardon. "The second you take a pardon, it looks like you’re guilty of something," he said. "I’m guilty of nothing besides bringing the truth to the American people.”
As for Biden’s last-minute pardons for members of his immediate family, even former supporters were appalled:
As Charlie writes, the inaugural news coverage was bland. Elon’s Nazi salute wasn’t worth mentioning. But Melania’s hat was big news. This is how we got into this death spiral.
Cannot tell you how much the Eli is coming video lifted my spirits! Please thank Mrs Sykes for all of us for that needed treat! 🐾
As Charlie writes, the inaugural news coverage was bland. Elon’s Nazi salute wasn’t worth mentioning. But Melania’s hat was big news. This is how we got into this death spiral.