Given Trump’s narcissistic and sadist nature, I could believe that he gets a small thrill knowing that people are in jail because they fought for him and therefore won’t pardon them. That would ruin the narrative.
They’re of no further utility to him, so they’re off his mind.
Does anyone else find it creepy and horrifying that Pence isn’t invoking the 25th when he was the intended hangee?
Trump has only one concern ever: what benefits himself. He will pardon people if he needs their loyalty in the future (without regard to past loyalty). His rabid base doesn’t even want the people who stormed the Capitol pardoned, so there’s no benefit to Trump.
He will not pardon them.
I find this statement odd. Any evidence for it. I would have thought that his base believes they are great patriots and would be horrified to see them prosecuted.
Andrew Johnson issued a blanket pardon to ex-Confederates for the crime of treason shortly before he left office. It did not name individuals.
Well, good question. I’m basing my opinion on my Facebook friends who are die-hard Trump supporters. For several days, they flat denied that the people who stormed the Capitol were actually Trump supporters at all. Then they pointed out how they were QAnon, as if they’re not Trump supporters. But I think that’s the divider they’re using now, to separate themselves from the thugs. But they do view the people who invaded as the bad guys.
I can see that. Trump is getting so much heat for it that they’re trying to distance Trump from the rioters.
Another motivation for Trump which is as strong as self enrichment is pissing off anyone who opposes him. Pardoning the rioters would certainly do that.
Yeah, and these people have no problem at all with cognitive dissonance. If Trump decides to pardon them to antagonize and inflame, the right will find some convoluted way to rationalize that the violence was all Antifa, but innocent patriots got caught up in it and must be protected from prosecution.
I think it’s kind of a toss-up. I’m not sure how worried Trump is about the impact on the probability of successful impeachment. If a Senate trial is 100 days away, that’s 99 days further than his capacity to plan ahead.
I’d say 4:1 odds that he actually does pardon them, and 100% certain that it’s come up at least once in private deliberations.
Pardoning the rioters would own the libs very deeply, so I’m sure Trump is strongly considering it.
However, (and I could be wrong), his political calculations must now involve many factors besides owning the libs, so it’s not a foregone conclusion.
Using words like “deliberations” and “calculations” to describe what’s happening in the White House right now seems overly generous.
He likes adulation. He likes to be magnanimous, if it doesn’t cost him anything. Julius Caesar was famous for his clemency, and his opponents hated it because they correctly identified it as the behavior of a would-be King: all mercy must come from him, as a personal favor.
If he decides the political fallout won’t be bad (true or not), he will pardon them. It makes him a king.
If he doesn’t, it will be because they looked trashy and he won’t want to claim them.
I believe Pence also has to have the support of the rest of the cabinet, doesn’t he? It’s not just a case of, “Okay, I’m invoking the 25th now.”
I can’t stand Pence, and I’ll bet more than a few of his reasons are self-serving, but I’m not going to condemn him just quite yet.
It may also depend on charges. Pardoning trespassing on federal property is one thing. Pardoning (felony) murder of a law enforcement official is another.
Pardoning the rioters would definitely make a lot of Republicans uncomfortable and uneasy.
Until Fox News begins its usual perverse historical rewrite, reframing the pardon as an attack on the liberals (“look how mad they are!”), and with their discomfort assuaged, the GOP would fall back into line. It would appear to be completely insane from the outside — it would be completely insane — but it always works anyway.
(Bolding mine)
Say what? His “few supporters” is well over 50 million people. They include hundreds if not thousands of state and municipal elected officials and law enforcement personnel. Over a hundred sitting US Representatives and a few fairly powerful Senators.
A few? 
Fine, strike the ‘few’, his remaining supporters. It was dismaying that so many members of Congress still voted to object after the riot. He does still have an alarming amount of support. But he did lose some.
My point was not that he’s losing support, but that his remaining supporters who are still willing to publicly support him are already trying to rehabilitate his image, saying he didn’t really mean for a riot / insurrection to happen, he just wanted a peaceful First Amendment protest (though if you look at everything he said and did in the hours, days and months beforehand, that’s clearly bullshit). If he pardons the rioters though, that strips away even the spurious claim he did not support the riot.
That is just part of The Lie.
Lies are an integral part of authoritarianism. They never stop. Ever.
Yes, I agree with you that pardoning these folks would not go as well for Trump as might hope.
If it is not too much of a hijack, has anyone seen any reportage about this incident? If not video/pics of the area, at least a description of where the officer was stationed, at what point in the riot he was injured, and what efforts are being made to identify the perps?
Seems there was more reportage of who stole a lectern…
That footage might not be as dramatic as people think. The officer made it to safety on his own to a recovery area before the seriousness of the blow started to become obvious.