Disgraceful pardons from Biden and Trump

We hold certain truths to be self-evident, or at least they ought to be. One of those truths is that we all need people to tell us when we’re stepping out of line, when we’re doing something that’s not in our best interest. And that’s especially true if you’re the president of the U.S.

If Joe Biden and Donald Trump have people like that around them, they must be on vacation.

Biden clearly cares about his legacy. It’s why he kept telling us what a great job he did as president. If evidence was needed that he lost more than a few steps in the mental acuity department, his delusional view of his four years in office provides it.

CBS News reports that, “When Americans look back now on Biden’s presidency, 37% approve of the job he has done over the last four years. That is just below any approval mark he received while in office.”

Biden told us repeatedly that he would not pardon his son. Then he did just that. In 2020, he told Jake Tapper on CNN that he would not issue preemptive pardons. “You’re not going to see, in our administration, that kind of approach to pardons,” is how he put it.

Then, in the final minutes of his presidency, he issued five preemptive pardons to members of his immediate family. Even David Axelrod, a loyal Democrat, said on CNN that Biden’s decision “looked tawdry.” 

History — even if it’s written by otherwise sympathetic liberals — will likely note what National Review called “his historic abuse of the pardon power.” This is how Biden will be remembered. 

As for Trump, he often has a long-distance relationship with the truth. But he did tell us that he would pardon the Jan. 6 rioters on Day One of his presidency — and (for a change), true to his word, he did just that.

Republicans like to think of themselves as the “law and order” party. They like to portray Democrats as “soft on crime.” There actually was something to that — until Trump signed the order pardoning almost everybody involved in the attack on the Capitol, including rioters who attacked police. With the stroke of his pen, he turned a potent talking point into a laugh line — one that Democrats will surely employ the next time a Republican pol talks about how his party is tough on crime.

Let me end where I began — about how we all need people to keep us in line, allies who will make sure we don’t do things that are not in our best interest.

Surely there are Republicans in Congress who think Trump’s decision to pardon so many criminals was not in his best interest, or the best interest of their party. Polls tell us that while Trump may think the rioters were “patriots,” most Americans don’t. Some in Congress have publicly come out against the pardons, but many have been silent.

Before Trump issued the pardons, even his soon-to-be vice president, JD Vance, said that anyone who committed violence on Jan. 6 “obviously” should not be pardoned. It’s a safe bet that’s no longer his position — not his public position, anyway. 

When House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was asked if he supports pardons for rioters who attacked police, he said, “I don’t know which cases you’re talking about. It’s an individual assessment.” And Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said, “We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward.” 

Trump understands the power of fear. “Real power is — I don’t even want to use the word — fear,” is what he told Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post in 2016.

This helps explain the silence or weak responses from many congressional Republicans. Yes, they’re team players, but a lot of them are just plain afraid of Trump. They fear his wrath and how he can end their careers by finding people more to his liking to run against them — if they don’t show the loyalty he demands.

Trump gets a lot of things wrong, but he got one thing right: Fear, in the world of politics, is a powerful weapon. 

Bernard Goldberg, the author of five books, is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page and posts on X.