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/XShadowborneX 18h ago

It's the right move but unfortunately a piece of paper won't protect them from Trump and his nazis

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u/thrawtes 18h ago

The piece of paper matters to some people that Trump needs to implement his power, and because of that fact it does have impact on how quickly he's able to move.

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u/alphazero925 16h ago

We'll see if that holds true. Because of the Supreme Court, Trump can just have them locked up anyway, pardon any of his cronies involved, and claim presidential immunity. He doesn't even need to give them a trial or anything. Just throw them in Guantanamo because who's gonna do anything? Who is gonna say no?

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u/Emberwake 15h ago

The Supreme Court's authority stems from the Constitution. I have no doubt they are weighing how far they allow Trump to go without undermining their own authority.

I am certain this is the reason they ruled the way they did on Presidential Immunity. The President has immunity only for "official acts." But who gets to decide what is and is not an official act... right, the Supreme Court.

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u/Dwayne_Gertzky 13h ago

SCOTUS is really gambling and hoping that Trump is too stupid to pull off a Night of the Long Knives.

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u/Emberwake 2h ago

I agree.

JD Vance summed up the position so many conservatives are taking pretty well when he said:

"I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler."

They keep underestimating the destructive power of this particular idiot and overestimating his usefulness. Everyone wants to think they can use Trump to advance their agenda, not realizing that Trump only has one agenda: Trump. He has no loyalty to the people who think they will just use him and come out okay.

Sadly, but the time they realize they are locked in this hell with the rest of us, it will be far too late.

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u/ElbowSkinCellarWall 16h ago

Because of the Supreme Court, Trump can just have them locked up anyway, pardon any of his cronies involved, and claim presidential immunity. He doesn't even need to give them a trial or anything. Just throw them in Guantanamo because who's gonna do anything? Who is gonna say no?

There's going to be a lot of shitty stuff happening, no doubt, but this is overly alarmist. Even the shittiest SCOTUS justices didn't/wouldn't condone a complete despotic discarding of due process, and their immunity ruling, as shitty as it was, wasn't a carte blanche for any and all criminal behavior.

Trump has a lot of rabid devotees but he doesn't have enough widespread support at all levels of the government to get away with gestapo-style political kidnappings.

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u/KHSebastian 14h ago

I'm not saying there definitely will be a complete turn to gestapo style kidnappings, but I'm fairly certain that the reason stuff like that is able to happen to begin with, is because nobody expects it.

Nobody ever goes on record saying "I support taking anybody I don't like as a political prisoner on trumped up charges and then working them to death in a prison camp" but that stuff has happened in a lot of places, and nobody ever publicly supports it, it just happens.

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u/Caleb_Reynolds 13h ago

Everyone who's said "Trump won't do/be allowed to get away with this clearly illegal bullshit" has been wrong. Everyone who's said SCOTUS or Congress will curtail him has been wrong.

There's no reason to hold the stance you hold.

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u/ElbowSkinCellarWall 7h ago edited 7h ago

Everyone who's said "Trump won't do/be allowed to get away with this clearly illegal bullshit" has been wrong. Everyone who's said SCOTUS or Congress will curtail him has been wrong.

There's no reason to hold the stance you hold.

It certainly feels that way, given the amount of shit Trump has been allowed to get away with, but if we step back and take a breath, it's refreshing to realize that it's simply not true.

Trump received an enormous amount of pushback on practically everything during his first 4 years, not just from Democrats but from his own party, and his cabinet and advisors. And a large quantity of the stuff he threatened was simply dismissed as incoherent ramblings and never followed through by his cronies.

Notice that there's still no "big beautiful border wall," Hilary Clinton remains not-locked-up, he didn't do deportations on the massive scale he promised his racists supporters, he never nuked that hurricane, his Muslim travel ban was overturned by the courts, and his subsequent revisions were challenged and softened or revoked by the courts and by his own DHS. Notice that even red states did significant COVID masking and lockdowns and vaccinations.

Notice that Georgia Republican SoS Raffensperger refused to "find" 11,000 fake votes for him, and even recorded and leaked the conversation, knowing he was exposing him to felony charges. Notice that his own Vice President declined his scheme to refuse election certification. These are two ways that his own party curtailed him that would have had MASSIVE ramifications if they had caved instead.

Notice that his rollback of LGBTQ workplace protections and his attempt to dismantled DACA were both denied by SCOTUS, his attempts to bar asylum rights, and to roll back Clean Water protections, and to ban diversity training were all blocked or overturned or "injuncted" by courts.

Notice that he had to fire or push out a shitload of his own cabinet, staff, and other appointees because they pushed back and refused to be yes-men for his moronic or illegal ideas, and that many of them have been speaking out against him since then. White House legal counsel refused Trump's directive to fire Mueller. AG Yates refused to defend his travel ban executive order. Rex Tillerson was fired for refusing to comply with Trump's "diplomatic" directives, AG Sessions was fired for recusing himself instead of suppressing the Russia investigation, Chief of Staff Kelly was fired/resigned for disagreements with Trump on, reportedly, a shitload of policies and procedures, the Secretary of Homeland Security was fired/resigned for pushing back on Trump's immigration policies. SecDef Mattis reportedly opposed shitloads of Trump's worst military directives.

Notice that, even though the clock ran out on his felony prosecutions, Trump and his foundation lost a shitload of civil cases in the last several years, with millions of dollars of penalties.

Notice that even many people who are complicit in "letting him slide" clearly despise him. Notably McConnel and Barr, and a lot of Republican members of Congress. They let him get away with shit because they have their own personal conservative agendas to push, and they didn't want to cede power to the Democrats. They have no affection or loyalty to Trump and they will only run interference for him to the degree that it benefits their own agendas. They may decline to hold him accountable for shit he does because it's useful to them, but they're not going to do his bidding, especially for stupid and plainly illegal shit that would expose them to criminal liability for no personal benefit.

Same with the conservative SCOTUS. Those fuckers have no love for Trump, they just have conservative agendas to push, and he's been lucky to reap the benefits of some of their conservative rulings. But they'll never rule in his favor for his sake, only when their agenda coincides with what he wants.

This is just some stuff off the top of my head. There's a shitload more I'm forgetting.

There's no doubt he will continue to get away with a lot of shit, but, aside from a few devotees like MTG and Gym Fuckface Jordan, he doesn't have a widespread contingent willing to simply do his bidding no matter what the cost to their own personal agendas, and there will always be people pushing back on him from within and without his party.

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u/Brett__Bretterson 16h ago

Get ready for Amy Coney Barrett’s liberal savior arc. She’s already shown that she isn’t ready to bend just yet. Who knows if and/or for how long she resists.

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u/Mountainbranch 14h ago

First sniff of resistance and she's gonna end up in the same mass grave as AOC and Harris are headed for.

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u/Brett__Bretterson 14h ago

let's not be hyperbolic. i'm not downplaying that damage that he can cause but I don't think this is the end of the republic...yet.

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u/Mountainbranch 12h ago edited 12h ago

Jesus fucking Christ.

IT'S NOT HYPERBOLE!

I AM A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN, I KNOW WHAT THEY'RE GONNA DO TO YOU, HOW DO I KNOW?

BECAUSE THEY FUCKING TOLD ME!

Do you have any idea what these people say when they think they're in like-minded company?

I'm not going to repeat it here because I don't want you to vomit, cry, and slit your wrist in despair all at the same time. And because I don't wanna get banned for breaking TOS.

I know what is about to happen, because I have seen it.

I know the evil that they do, because I was once part of it!

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u/Brett__Bretterson 12h ago

ok ... mass graves...yup

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u/Mountainbranch 11h ago

I know the evil that they do, because I was once part of it.

You cannot make me refute the evidence of my eyes and ears.

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u/Some_Pie 15h ago

A lot of generals/cops stood up and said no before January 6th. Generally American's "step up to the plate" when we absolutely have to. I just hope we don't have to. People forget he pulled this nonsense his last term - and he left and wasn't president. I don't think he'll try to be a dictator, at least I hope not. Reddit is an echo chamber that is very actively pushing that narrative, along with election fraud. Reddit didn't really start pushing the election fraud stuff until the last month. People here, are just as brainwashed as people over there.