Trump Dangles Pardons to His 2024 Insurrectionist Allies
When Donald Trump has probed the American political system for weaknesses that would allow him to subvert its democratic character, the tool he has returned to again and again is the presidential pardon. The pardon is the ultimate constitutional wormhole. It allows the chief executive to solicit almost any crime, a power which, in turn, destroys whatever protections are offered by the rest of the framework designed by the Founders to restrain the office.
Trump returned to that power at his rally last night. “If I run and I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly,” he said at a Texas rally. “We will treat them fairly, and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”
During his term in office, Trump’s polling was quickly (and we now realize, inaccurately) dismal. Republican elites expected he would lose, the party would undergo a course correction, and future success would come to those Republicans who had the patience to keep their distance from his grossest excesses.
The January 6 insurrection was led by a militant radical vanguard acting on a plan that aligned closely with Trump’s own scheme to secure an unelected second term. The plot failed because it lacked broader party support: On that day, even the likes of Donald Trump Jr. and Sean Hannity blanched at the spectacle of a violent seizure of power.
Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/trump-dangles-pardon-january-6-insurrection-2024-campaign.html
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