Promises made, promises kept, President Trump liked to cheer in his first term, sometimes rightly so.
He's only a few days into his second term and already he makes this claim after a flood of orders. In no case is his boast more justified, if more shameful, than the blanket pardon on the first day 1,583 rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, commuted the sentences of those most responsible – and most violent – and dismissed all remaining cases.
Trump promised at rallies throughout his 2024 campaign that he would immediately release “the J-6 hostages” upon his return to office. Still in harmony The Promise, he broke a long-forgotten post on the same topic. He made it not to a political rally, but to one Video recording at the White House, a day after the seven-hour insurrection was quelled, and as he faced bipartisan condemnation for his complicity.
Opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes takes a critical look at the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
The president who had inspired the mob to try to keep him in power began that evening by calling January 6 “noneDay of love“among patriots, as he says these days, but a “heinous attack on the United States Capitol.” And then Trump, still sounding like a normal president, said this:
“Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and chaos. I immediately deployed the National Guard and Federal Police to secure the building and drive out the intruders. America is and must always be a nation of law and order. The protesters who infiltrated the Capitol desecrated the seat of American democracy. To those who committed violence and destruction: you do not represent our country. And those who broke the law You will pay.”
The only one back then lies in this passage appeared to be Trump's claim that he “immediately deployed troops” to quell the turmoil, which directly or indirectly led to the deaths of nine people, including five police officers. Now we know the whole thing was a lie: Trump wasn't outraged. He didn't really condemn the “protesters” – they were, after all, pro-Trump, as evidenced by the banners on poles that were used as weapons against the police. He didn't care that they were lawless or violent, even though he witnessed the massacre while reporting on television alone in the White House for hours, ignoring pleas from aides and family members to intervene.
Above all, Trump didn't really believe be Rioters should “pay.”
And now that Trump has paid no price for his role in instigating January 6th, he has wiped the books of all attackers and negated the verdicts of many of his colleagues' jurors.
A few examples of his freed “hostages”: David Dempsey of Santa Ana, California, a man with a criminal past who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, reflecting his cruelty toward police. Read that Prosecution report: Dempsey climbed over other rioters and used “his hands, feet, flagpoles, crutches, pepper spray, broken pieces of furniture and anything else he could get his hands on” to beat hitters who were trying to storm the Capitol and the people inside to protect, including Trump's vice president.
And Daniel “DJ” Rodriguez of Fontana, Calif., who ran an online site for the so-called PATRIOTS45MAGA gang that mobilized militants to the Capitol; When he got there, he beat police with a fire extinguisher, rods and a stun gun, which he repeatedly pushed into the neck of D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack, among other injuries. “Tazzzz did the f— out of the blue,” Rodriguez posted afterward. At the Capitol, he vandalized offices, broke windows and stole items. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
As of Tuesday, two of the biggest FBI agents have also won – far-right militia leaders Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys (22 years old) and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers (18 years old). left prisons. “The idea that Stewart Rhodes could be acquitted of his actions is frightening and should frighten everyone who cares about democracy in this country,” said U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who presided over the trial. said last month, in anticipation of Trump's actions.
So many stories like that. And yet Trump’s order makes a grotesquely false statement: “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice inflicted on the American people over the past four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”
The now-retired official Fanone, who bravely testified before the House committee on January 6 and received death threats for doing so, is not feel reconciled. With all six of his identified attackers now free (and allowed to own guns), he wrote on Instagram: “My family, my children and I are less safe today because of Donald Trump and his supporters.”
The top tripper has essentially made the people around him liars too. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on Sunday a week earlier: “If you committed violence that day, of course you shouldn't be pardoned.” Obvious? And Pam Bondi, Trump's nominee for attorney general, stated Days later, she said at her Senate confirmation hearing that pardons would be decided on a “case by case” basis. And I abhor violence against police officers.” If confirmed, she will now enforce Trump's all-encompassing dictates and ensure that prisons and court records are cleared of those who beat hundreds of police officers.
The annoying thing is that Republicans aren't just condemning Trump, they're doing it a false equivalence between draw his action and former President Biden's last-minute preemptive pardon of his siblings and their spouses. Biden deserves a lot of blame for giving Republicans this opportunity, despite Trump's explicit threat legal retaliation against his family. Still, there is no comparison between Biden's simply offensive pardons and Trump's abhorrent general clemency toward traitors.
Trump kept a campaign promise, a repulsive one, but in the process broke the earlier, more appropriate promise – to make them pay. And with the pardons on January 6th, he made a mockery of the rule of law. On his first day as president.