Every News Anchor Who Launders Trump Freeing Jan 6 Criminals By Clutching Biden Pardon Pearls Can Kick Rocks
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Every news anchor and reporter who launders President Donald Trump’s blanket pardons by citing now-former President Joe Biden’s pardons needs to kick rocks. Pound sand. Bow their head in shame and repent.
The media spent most of Monday covering every moment of Trump’s inauguration to a second term, but one event overshadowed nearly everything else that came before and after it — Trump’s pardons and commutations for the January 6 defendants, including those who committed violence against police.
The move drew widespread and bipartisan condemnation, although many equated Trump’s move with Biden’s preemptive pardons even as they acknowledged they were in response to threats from Trump.
Now, I don’t want to pick on any one anchor or reporter — I want to pick on all of them. Since Trump issued those pardons, there has not been a panel discussion that hasn’t included someone advancing the premise that Biden’s pardons give Trump at least some sort of “cover” or set some kind of related “precedent” or otherwise laundered Trump’s despicable action in the detergent of — well, it’s hard to think of a word for it, because it’s not “false equivalency.”
That’s the go-to accusation when anyone tries to excuse something Trump did, and it’s usually at least somewhat accurate. You know, like Biden falling off his bike and Trump constantly telling everyone who’ll listen that the Nazis were good, actually. Okay, bad example.
But this isn’t a case of false equivalence. Some Trump critics — and again, I don’t want to pick on one but you know who you are — try to argue that Biden’s pardons are terrible but Trump’s are much worse and Biden’s terrible pardons are no excuse. That’s a false equivalence argument. And it is wrong.
What’s frustrating about that argument is that some of the people making it — not all — will even say that they know why Biden did it but he still shouldn’t have and he violated some sacred principle. It’s a “two wrongs don’t make a right” argument.
But the truth is, whatever outrage you feel over Biden’s pardons is not Biden’s doing — it is Trump’s.
In pardoning figures involved in the January 6 investigation, Biden wrote:
Our nation relies on dedicated, selfless public servants every day. They are the lifeblood of our democracy.
Yet alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.
In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions, including General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and the members and staff of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.
Where is the lie?
Those threats apply moreso to the president’s family, who were the subject of a years-long smear campaign dressed as a series of investigations that were dogged by headline after headline featuring journalists, news anchors, legal experts, Newsmax hosts, Mediaite founders, and even a parade of his fellow Republicans pointing out there has been “no evidence” of crimes or misconduct.
As it happens, the pardons Biden issued cover the same date range as the events that Trump and Republicans tried to concoct into a scandal that, I repeat once again, never went anywhere.
So why is it that these facts are either not mentioned or are treated as a barely-relevant footnote? Newspeople who complain about these pardons are like people watching Die Hard and wondering why that rude man from New York is trying to ruin Christmas for those nice European gentlemen.
Biden’s pardons are Trump’s pardons — they were made necessary by his constant and, yes, unprecedented threats of political retribution. The only principle being violated is being violated by Trump.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
