Should Biden pardon Trump

[Ming]

Now assuming Trump doesn't try to pardon himself...

Actually, not a bad idea...

Comey: Biden should consider pardoning Trump

Former FBI Director James Comey suggested President-elect Biden should consider pardoning President Trump if he faces criminal prosecution after leaving office.
"I don't know, he should at least consider it," Comey said during an interview with BBC Newsnight. "Donald Trump, he's not a genius, but he might figure out that if he accepts a pardon, that's an admission of guilt, the United States Supreme Court has said, so I don't know that he would accept a pardon."
Comey said that a potential pardon from Biden would help "as part of healing the country and getting us to a place where we can focus on things that are going to matter over the next four years."
"I think Joe Biden is going to have to at least consider it," he added.
Legal experts have said it could be difficult to charge Trump with a crime related to last week's deadly rioting at the Capitol by his supporters that led to the president's second impeachment on Wednesday. But the president and his company could face scrutiny for possible financial crimes in the Southern District of New York, they have noted.
Earlier this week, Comey, whom Trump fired, said it would be the "greatest punishment he could imagine" for politicians and the media to ignore Trump after he leaves office.
Trump does "belong in jail," Comey told the BBC, but he believes that prosecuting a former president is not "in the best interest of the entire nation."
"I think the wiser decision would be not to pursue him," he added. "But whatever you do, the next president, Joe Biden, should explain it to the American people. Be transparent about why you're doing what you're doing."
Trump has repeatedly attacked Comey and other former intelligence and former law enforcement officials during his four years in office, alleging they were part of a so-called deep state that sought to undermine his 2016 presidential campaign and eventually sparked Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation.
Comey has in recent weeks criticized Trump for peddling unproven theories about electoral fraud and lying about the 2020 election being "stolen" from him.
"You can't shout at people to convince them that they've been defrauded. One of the hardest things in the world is for a victim of a fraud, of lies, to admit they were fooled," Comey said this week during an interview with NBC's "Today." "I worked criminal cases where the victims of a fraud would come to support the fraudster after he pled guilty. It is not about shouting at them. It is about coaxing them and urging them and letting them out of that fog of lies."

I actually agree in many ways. Let's get all this crap behind us.

[BeBMan]

It's actually an interesting question. Even if the 1st idea is "no" after Jan6 and everything that happened.

Just skimmed the article, but my personal feeling is that it would at least need a minimum of goodwill from Trump in the sense that he accepts that Biden legitimately won, publicly.

Thing is does T want to go that far? Maybe - other than he wants to hold on to the lie/myth that he won - he would see it as humiliation if the pardon comes from Biden. Otoh if the alternative is legal trouble, who knows.

The pro might be that it could help ease tensions. Wouldn't affect the hard core that uses violence, but maybe the bigger part of Trump voters which are hopefully not onboard with the stuff that happened Jan6.

The con would be less/no legal consequences. Might still work if consequences in other areas (how much money does/will he lose, how much is he shunned by media etc.) are heavy.

/cents.

[Serb]

The real question is - would 75 mil of Trump supporters will ever pardon Dems for a highway robbery?

[-Jrabbit]

Vs. the clear majority of 81 million biden voters, who would be equally angry if the election was overturned.

[Serb]

Welcome to the magic World of Civil war!
(even if we assume you are true about 81 mil majority)

[Serb]

Get yourselves comfortable after you stop masturbating over you self-proclaimed victory!

Everything is just begins for your country!

[Serb]

The "mostly peaceful" Biden's BLM pawns will never forgive him his betrayal and the 75 millions of Trump's voters too!

: popcorn:

[Serb]

Burn yourselves to hell for all you care!!!

[Uncle Sparky]

He wrote a book in prison called 'Mein Kampf', a popular read in the US apparently.

[Berzerker]

Legal experts have said it could be difficult to charge Trump with a crime related to last week's deadly rioting at the Capitol by his supporters that led to the president's second impeachment on Wednesday.

Impeached twice and no crime, good job Pelosi (she covered for war criminals)

[Berzerker]

if Trump took the pardon could he run in 4 years?

[Proteus_MST]

Definitely not ... Trump should face all legal charges that may result from his conduct during his time in office

[BeBMan]

Impeached twice and no crime, good job Pelosi (she covered for war criminals)

What do you think the consequences for Donald Trump should be after what we saw?

[Berzerker]

Telling people to peacefully protest a government action is not a crime, so criticize him if you think he went over the line rhetorically. It appears some/many people who broke in were planning to and at least 1 was a BLM/Antifa activist who recorded himself inciting the riot (doh). From what I saw the rioters mostly looked like a MAGA version of Antifa, plenty of black clothing and tools of trade. If I have a problem with what happened, it was any delay in responding to the riot. Did Trump wait and how long before responding to calm tensions?

I watched Democrats spend 4 years 'inciting' hatred of Trump, his supporters, and the cops and there is no doubt that fueled the riots we saw. But if you look at the statistics more unarmed black people were killed under Obama and the number had been going down and black people were actually doing better under Trump. I think thats why we saw the riots, drive a wedge between black voters and Trump. He was competing for the Democrat's black base so they started a war.

[Ming]

Yep... blame the Dems for the storming of the Capitol... whatever.
The real blame falls on Trump for sprouting his whole THEY STOLE THE ELECTION BS from day one, with absolutely no proof. He continued to stoke the fires day after day, and then told everybody to come to Washington, and then told them to follow him to the Capitol (when he then proceeded to hide)... But I guess that all doesn't matter to you since you can just blame the Democrats.

[Berzerker]

Democrats accused Trump of not only stealing the election but conspiring with Putin to do it. Then they spied on his presidency and hit him with a 3 year investigation over that nonsense and impeached him for investigating their corruption. Democrats lit the fuse to last year's riots and this one.

The reason why Trump voters think the election was stolen is because of what they watched over 4 years, not Trump's speech. And that all started with Democrats getting caught rigging their own primary to screw Sanders.

[Dauphin]

Did the Democrats say Trump stole the election with Russian help? My experience (which may be mis-remembered, so fair challenge) was that the narrative was Russia sought to interfere in the election in favour of Trump, and that Trump actively sought Russian support, but that these activities were not decisive in swaying the election. The person claiming an unfair election at the time was Trump, who said basically the same thing he is doing now - that he would not accept the result of an election if he lost.

Trump has been dousing the the place with gasoline since before his own election. He may not have set off the fire, but he made or significantly contributed to the environment, especially with the antics of the last few months.

Are the Democrats to blame in some way - maybe - these things aren't happening in a vacuum. They have been petty against Trump, and blown small things out of proportion, and been underhand, but much of it is standard politics. Bill Clinton - Lewinski, Benghazi, 'her e-mails', Birtherism. Those things, whilst underhand by Republicans, are not deadly to democracy, and neither is impeaching Trump for blatantly asking for assistance in getting dirt on Biden (whether it merited it or not). What is deadly to democracy is persuading people that you have a rigged election and seek to depose a fairly elected President. The Democrats accepted the result of the 2016 election and transferred power. The Republicans had a dog and pony show about a stolen election with no actionable evidence.

[Proteus_MST]

Also ther DEMs hat nothing to do with the final Mueller ivestigation.

It was a Trump appointzee who started it ... and Mueller, who led it, also was someone from th GOP.

[-Jrabbit]

Someone made damned sure the defenses were weak. Private tours the day before - when Capitol tours have been shut down since last spring - seem to have happened as well.
That strongly suggests there was significant inside help.

[Dauphin]

Let's hope the politics don't ruin an investigation. #snowballinhell

[Jon Miller]

I would have been OK with Pence pardoning Trump if Trump resigned on the 6th/7th/8th, as long as no one else involved was pardoned.

I see nothing good about Trump being pardoned by Biden after the 20th.

I think that Congress/Biden needs to appoint a Truth and Reconciliation commission which handles Trump though.

JM

[-Jrabbit]

It's a virtual certainty that 45 will issue himself a blanket pardon. I will be absolutely gobsmacked if he doesn't.

The fact that it's never been tested in court before will strongly appeal to Trump. It will allow him to play the victim all the more.

[Berzerker]

From what I heard the Mayor didn't want NG armed or nearby because of the optics. I'm not sure what kind of control Trump had over that, the Pentagon and 2 neighboring states activated NG units to be used at the discretion of local political control.

[-Jrabbit]

Do you really think it's OK to try blaming the DC mayor, and that she would actually dial down the obvious need for strong defense because, "optics"?
No. That's just straight-up BS excuse-making.

[Berzerker]

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/955548910/ex-capitol-police-chief-rebuffs-claims-national-guard-was-never-called-during-ri

Ex chief of police said the House, Senate and Mayor were the weak link in the chain of command. The Mayor told the NG to leave the weapons at home and assigned them traffic control, not law enforcement. The guy who resigned told the Congress to call in help several times and they didn't do it.