My understanding is that legally, there is no reason Trump couldn’t just issue a blanket pardon against anyone involved in the DC riots. That wouldn’t, however, protect them from state-level charges.
Any particular reason why Trump wouldn’t issue a pardon?
Because it didn’t change the outcome. He strikes me as being that petty.
Salvaging his 2024 run, or even his wet dream of heading the red party while Biden runs the ship.
One may say that those are now impossible, but not in Trump’s mind. However Trump believes what he does is in everyone’s best interest. In other words everyone benefits under Trump. So Trump can do no wrong unless Trump bows to pressure (other people). Trump needs to be on top for the betterment of all mankind.
I think he will probably try it. I predict there will be a legal challenge to try to reverse the pardon. Resolving the matter will take years. They will try to add a constitutional amendment to stop future Trumps from doing the same.
I don’t know what there would be a legal challenge, the pardon power is well defined. It may go badly for Pence who should have removed Trump via the 25th a few days ago. Not to mention Trump should have been impeached already from the first attempt. But you leave him in charge and people are going to get hurt and killed and things are going to be broken.
“Why would I pardon them? They’re all losers! I like seditionists who actually succeed in taking over the government!”
As to whether he will, it’s hard to say what his twisted narcissistic mind thinks would be the best course of action for him, but pardoning the rioters seems to me that it would be the absolute final nail in the coffin for any political future he might have.
His stranglehold over the Republican party has been due to a relatively fragile coalition of fringe CT nutjobs who believe and are inflamed by his rhetoric, and more ordinary everyday Repubs who aren’t really all that political, so they don’t pay much attention to trump’s worst behaviors, they just know they’d never vote for a Democrat.
Pardoning the rioters might get trump quickly back in the good graces of the fringe loonies who are feeling betrayed by trump’s latest video in which he denounced them; but it would make absolutely clear to establishment Republicans that he did and does support the events of January 6. Clear enough that they couldn’t continue to ignore his worst behaviors, even if they wanted to.
Not pardoning the rioters but making weasely, wishy-washy criticisms of them when he’s asked, while making ‘wink-wink’ vague comments in support of them and their beliefs will eventually get the CT fringsters back in line, because they can’t stay mad at their hero forever. In other words he would have to continue to walk that fine line between encouraging the fringsters and not being overtly horrifying to establishment Repubs, because he has no political future or leverage with either group alone. But I don’t know if he has the ability to get out of his toxic narcissistic head to understand that.
While the riot was going on, I thought for sure that he was going to pardon them and I bet that most of them did as well. I changed my mind after his final couple of Tweets when he condemned them. If he pardons them, he’s will have lost all viability and will probably be convicted by the Senate after the House impeachment.
If he is criminally charged after leaving office for inciting violence on 1/6, a pardon would be evidence that he approved of the violence that he is accused of inciting. I hope his lawyers are explaining that to him.
Oh, please. Trump has done nothing BUT unprecedented terrible things, and each time we to his left have said “surely THIS will be the final straw that makes his supporters abandon him”. I see no reason to believe that this is in any way true. Trump was right when he said that he could shoot a man on 5th Avenue without losing support. He could wipe his ass with the Declaration of Independence and set it on fire and his supporters would just laugh about how he owned the Libtards by doing so.
The one thing you can be sure of is that all he will be thinking about is how it might benefit him.
On the one hand, the lunatic elements in his base may have felt betrayed by his superficial repudiation of the “patriotic” assault on the Capitol. Trying to pardon them might restore their faith, it might embolden them and foster more of the violence and chaos that Trump craves right now.
On the other hand, trying to pardon them could be the final straw for Pence to invoke the 25th, and might outrage so many people that it tips the balance toward successful impeachment in the Senate.
Burn it all down vs self-preservation. I think the calculus of his self interest probably tips toward self-preservation, i.e. no attempted pardon. But it could go either way,
In terms of “Can”, is it legal just to issue a blanket pardon saying “anyone who entered the Capitol building on Jan 6 is hereby pardoned”? I’d think a pardon would have to name the pardonee.
You can thank Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter for that. Blanket pardons were an expedient bandaid for what was immediately dividing the country but the precedent set is an awful one.
If riling up a crowd to the point where they build a gallows and chant “hang Mike Pence” isn’t enough for Pence to invoke the 25th it seems safe to presume nothing will do it.
Ok, true, true. But actively inciting an insurrection upon the Capitol building, causing 5 deaths, is very very, horrifyingly bad in itself, but his few remaining supporters are trying to argue “but but but…he didn’t actually explicitly tell them to overrun the Capitol building”.
Pardoning the rioters is trump explicitly and incontrovertibly saying he supports and condones those actions. If even causing the riot isn’t a bridge too far for trump, I think pardoning the rioters would definitely be.
If he does it, it will probably be an hour before his term is over.
If I am reading and interpreting your post correctly, I think that’s what will happen: Trump will wait until the final day of his administration to issue the pardons. I’d be somewhat surprised if he doesn’t do it – he might have trouble finding lawyers to agree to help him draft it, but he clearly has the authority to do it, and bad pardons have never stopped presidents from pardoning and their lawyers from helping presidents write them.
In a way, I almost feel like Trump has to issue the pardons to redeem himself, considering how his thugs ended up getting exposed to legal jeopardy on his behalf and how some of his supporters are turning on him now. He’ll probably issue pardons and then tell people “They made me admit defeat – I was surrounded by 18 armed and angry democrats!”
The implies two things that seem quite implausible. 1) That Trump would ever feel he did something wrong that required redemption. And 2) That he feels responsible for anybody else’s unfortunate circumstances.
Jimmy Carter issued a blanket pardon for all Vietnam draft evaders. He did not have to name them all individually.
My understanding though is that that was never challenged. We don’t k iwnif those would have held up, if someone tried to prosecute them.