Pardon the J6 Demostrators

Slate reports that history supports Trump pardons:

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump told conservative radio host Wendy Bell that if he were to return to the Oval Office he would grant pardons and also apologize to participants in the January 6 [demostration]. ...

The thought that presidents might use their pardon power to pardon insurrectionists was first raised in 1788 by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton discussed this possibility to bolster his argument that the pardon power should be lodged solely in the president and that the occupant of that office should have maximum leeway in exercising it.

In the Federalist Papers he argued explicitly that the president’s clemency power should extend even to what he called “the crime of treason.”

Hamilton wrote that

the principal argument for reposing the power of pardoning in this case to the Chief Magistrate is this: in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth; and which, if suffered to pass unimproved, it may never be possible afterwards to recall.

Indeed, it didn’t take long for Hamilton’s 1788 endorsement of the use of clemency in times of rebellion and insurrection to materialize. In fact, the very first presidential pardon was issued by George Washington in 1795 to men who had been convicted of treason for their participation in Pennsylvania’s Whiskey Rebellion. These rebels had taken up arms to resist the federal government’s plan to impose excise taxes on whiskey. ...

To take two other examples, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued 64 pardons for war-related offences, including conspiracy, treason, rebellion, holding an office under the Confederacy, and aiding the rebels; and, in an 1868 Christmas Day pardon, his successor Andrew Johnson issued a blanket amnesty to all Confederate soldiers.

Following Hamilton’s maxim, Johnson explained that he hoped this act would “renew and fully restore confidence and fraternal feeling among the whole, and their respect for and attachment to the national [e.g., federal] government, designed by its patriotic founders for the general good.”

The vast majority of the J6 protesters were peacefully demanding that proper election procedures be followed. They were patriots, not criminals.

Pres. Biden made it clear in his speech last week that he is carrying on a war against MAGA Republicans. He will use the US DoJ and anything else to damage his political enemies.

Yahoo News reports:

President Biden’s fiery speech in Philadelphia denouncing former President Donald Trump and what he described as “extreme MAGA ideology” has sparked online calls for violence, including death threats against the president, according to documents obtained by Yahoo News. ...

During Biden’s speech, four current U.S. domestic counterterrorism officials told Yahoo News they were concerned the president’s words would further divide the nation and lead to increased threats against government and law enforcement officials.

“I fear he is lighting a fuse that is not going to go well,” one senior Biden counterterrorism official said. “Sadly this is not a united speech but a very divisive one.”

I think that Biden is looking to start a Civil War.