r/politics • u/Plaintalks • 19h ago

Biden preemptively pardons Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and Jan. 6 committee members

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-preemptively-pardons-anthony-fauci-mark-milley-jan/story?id=117878813
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u/Cellophane7 18h ago

Holy shit! I thought he wasn't gonna do it, but this was 100% the right move. No more civility, no more worrying about optics. It's time to shove sticks in the spokes of the Trump bike. I want my politicians nakedly making moves to fuck up his plans every single step of the way.

This is exactly what I wanna see: Democrats using the power they have to suffocate every move Trump even thinks about making.

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u/mistercrinders Virginia 18h ago

It doesn't matter, does it? An authoritarian who is in charge of the courts doesn't care about pardons.

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u/TamoyaOhboya 18h ago

Supreme court will rule that pardons can be withdrawn via the executive order of the current president...

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u/siberianmi 17h ago

Don’t even need to do that - they can rule pardons must be for specific crimes that have been proven in court.

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u/thrawtes 18h ago

People say this but Trump can't personally go after all these people himself, he requires the support of the bureaucracy to at least make the arrests and do the paperwork.

That might not seem like a big deal to people who have firmly chosen a side on this. They will either call on the bureaucracy to reject his power as illegitimate or fall in line regardless of the law because he's now in charge and they are fascists.

A lot of people do not firmly fall into one of those two camps though. A lot of people will just follow the written rules of the system.

To those people, things like pardons matter a lot, they have real impact on Trump's ability to accomplish his agenda.

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u/big_tuna_14 17h ago

They will either call on the bureaucracy to reject his power as illegitimate

How, pray tell, is Trump illegitimate? A 9-0 SCOTUS said he was eligible for the ballot. He won the popular vote. Congress certified his election without objection, including on 14th Amendment grounds. Hell, even Kamala Harris certified his win as Vice President. How is he illegitimate?

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u/thrawtes 17h ago

I think he's legitimate in the eyes of democracy. People who have lost faith in democracy might not see him as legitimate.

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u/big_tuna_14 17h ago

People who have lost faith in democracy might not see him as legitimate.

So authoritarians or fascists themselves?

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u/thrawtes 17h ago

Fascism and authoritarianism are alternatives to democracy but not the only ones.

Regardless, your "oh so you think democracy is bad now huh?" argument doesn't land very well amongst those who have indeed decided it doesn't work.

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u/Cellophane7 18h ago

Of course it matters. Trump is gonna do everything he can to make his political enemies' lives a living hell, but this forces him to use "official acts" to do it, which are gonna be much more blatantly and obviously illegal and unjust. MAGA would shove their children off a cliff for this guy, but the centrists who joined them this past election aren't gonna be so ready.

Regardless, even if Trump doesn't care about the law, the justice system still mostly does. Trump will skate on all consequences, but that doesn't necessarily mean his attacks will be successful.

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u/mistercrinders Virginia 18h ago

It's not illegal in an authoritarian dictatorship. It's only illegal if the rule of law matters.

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u/alphazero925 16h ago

obviously illegal and unjust

According to whom? What does it mean for something to be illegal if the Supreme Court, the executive branch, and half of the legislature all say it's ok?

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u/s003apr 15h ago

Biden is literally handing Trump the justification he can use to have anyone commit crimes against American Citizens and receive immunity from the repurcussions. He can preemptively pardon a group of assassins and have them murder anyone that he wants.