How Biden's Pardons Normalize Abuse of Power

The venality is breathtaking.

The corruption is one thing. But pardons he gave government officials like Mark Milley, Anthony Fauci, Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney and others has create an unprecedented moral hazard that will long outlive Biden.

Ponder the long-term consequences of blanket amnesty for political allies. It's difficult to imagine anything could incentivize criminality and abuse of power more than knowing a president will simply give you a get-out-of-jail-free card at the end of a term.

Indeed, even if pardoning one's allies doesn't become a White House tradition, and it might, a president can simply intimate that forgiveness is coming, sanctioning his minions to abuse their office with impunity.

"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense," Biden writes.

Why not? The pardons are either an acknowledgment by Democrats that the Justice Department can easily be weaponized against political foes or, conversely, that these actors behaved in ways that were possibly criminal or corrupt.

And let's momentarily set aside future effects of the pardons. What about the culpability of those Biden let off the hook? Most of these operatives deserve scrutiny.

Biden contends that the United States "owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country." The term "public servant" is one of the most misleading in our vernacular. It insinuates that government officials are sacrificing themselves for the common good when most not only make a great living but are imbued with undeserved power and prestige. The state has gotten so big that we are the ones who end up being servants.

We certainly don't owe Fauci, the epitome of an abusive mandarin, anything. It is unlikely that any American has ever done more to damage trust in public health.

Fauci released a statement expressing gratitude for Biden's pardon, noting that the threat of prosecution "creates immeasurable and intolerable distress on me and my family." Surely, the distress Fauci feels is trivial compared to the anguish experienced by Americans who were barred from attending the funerals of their loved ones, those who had their businesses needlessly decimated, or parents who sat helpless while profound harm was inflicted on their children because of shutdowns.

The federal government is an all-powerful entity that will destroy your life, throw you in prison and shut down your church. Fauci is not solely responsible for what happened, but he steered the ship.

Governors regularly leaned on Fauci's positions as justification for their unconstitutional shutdowns of churches, economic lockdowns and school closures. And Fauci praised them for it. It was the most undemocratic exertion of state power over individuals in modern history.

In a real "democracy," the public would be entitled to know if Fauci, who later admitted that "draconian" COVID-19 policies led to "collateral negative consequences," had been lying to Congress and presidents. What if I knew there was overwhelming evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 had originated in China and lied about that as well? These are completely legitimate issues to investigate.

Like Fauci, Milley was bestowed with an unprecedented pardon "for any offenses against the U.S. which he may have committed or taken part in" from January 2014 to the issuing of the pardon. That's 10 years. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says he's "deeply grateful" for the pardon. I bet he is.

A rank partisan, Milley's incompetence and dishonesty during the deadly Afghanistan pullout were bad enough. But then he cooked up a counterhistorical fantasy in which Donald Trump would nuke adversaries to save his White House bid. This, he thinks, justified making two calls to Chinese communist generals, promising to give them a heads-up should the commander in chief of the U.S. Army attack — an unambiguous and possibly treasonous subversion of Constitution and civilian authority over the military.

In the end, Trump has far greater reason to fear retribution than Biden. The Democratic-run Justice Department already tried to destroy the lives of his personal lawyers and launched an unprecedented round of lawfare that was meant to put him in prison. Trump, incidentally, despite concerns at the time, didn't preemptively pardon everyone in his administration and family in 2021. Why wouldn't he do it next time?

If not Trump, what about whoever comes next? History consistently shows us that every morsel of power taken by one leader is likely to be used by another. Thanks, Joe.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 02/17/25: Israel Makes a Deal With the Actual Devil
• 02/13/25: Why Javier Milei Matters
• 12/20/24: The Obama Doctrine Is Dead
• 12/13/24: It's time for a national conversation about left-wing violence
• 12/09/24: It's time for a national conversation about left-wing violence
• 11/08/24: Don't Trash the Constitution to Dunk on the Libs
• 11/08/24: This 'liberation' will NOT be reported
• 11/01/24: HARRIS Is the Bigger Threat to the Constitutional Order
• 09/20/24: Fact checked! Harris Is the Extremist
• 07/13/24: Explain Yourself, Kamala Harris!
• 07/05/24: How Biden's Mental Decline Went From 'Misinformation' to Fact in a Week
• 04/12/24: Biden Is Now Chasing the 'Death to America' Voter
• 03/15/24: Turns Out Biden Lied About Hur, Beau, And Why He Pilfered Classified Docs
• 02/09/24: Why Biden Is Threatening to Veto Aid to Israel
• 02/09/23: Electric Cars Are a Scam
• 06/30/23: Americans Have Never Been Less Threatened by 'Extreme Weather'
• 03/03/23: Questioning Biden's Ukraine Policy Doesn't Make You an 'Isolationist'
• 01/20/23: No ribbons? Don't hide behind religion!
• 01/13/23: On Classified Documents, Joe Biden Is Out of Excuses
• 04/29/22: Biden's Ministry of Truth
• 04/08/22: The Most Radical Abortion Law in the Nation
• 04/01/22: Recuse Yourself, Joe Biden
• 03/25/22: No, School Boards Are Not 'Banning Books'
• 03/11/22: Let Them Drive Teslas
• 01/28/22: It's Not Government's Job to 'Root Out' Misinformation
• 01/14/22: Biden's Big Elections Lie
• 01/07/22: Schumer's Ugly 'Voting Rights' Gamble
• 12/24/21:AOC's Grasp on American Governance Is a 'Farce'
• 12/17/21: Dems Pivot from Build Back Better to Useless Extremism
• 11/19/21: Reckoning' Over Steele Dossier?
• 10/15/21: The Biden White House Will Pay for Playing Inflation Games
• 09/24/21: The most demonstrable political scandal still ignored
• 09/17/21: Sorry, AOC, The Rich Already Pay Their Fair Share
• 09/02/21: Why Isn't Biden to Blame for COVID-19 Deaths?
• 08/06/21: Biden's Unprecedented Attack on the Constitution
• 07/30/21: Jan. 6 Was Deplorable. It Was NOT a Coup
• 06/21/21: The Myth of Republican Obstructionism
• 05/21/21: What Does Putin Have on Biden?
• 04/16/21: Kristen Clarke Is Unfit to Be in Government
• 03/26/21: No to DC Statehood is far from GOP being reflexive
• 03/22/21: Biden Prepares to Strip College Students of Due Process Rights The Hypocrisy of the Filibuster Busters
• 03/12/21: Biden Prepares to Strip College Students of Due Process Rights
• 03/05/21: AOC's Terrible Minimum Wage Argument
• 02/12/21: The Dem Party Is Radicalizing against the Constitution
• 02/05/21: What NOT to Do with Marjorie Taylor Greene
• 01/15/21: Free Speech Is a Value Not Just a Right
• 12/31/20: It Can't Get Any Worse Than 2020. Here's a 2021 Political Wish List
• 10/26/20: Wanted: An Honest Debate about the Death Penalty
• 10/26/20: These are the questions 'Big Guy' Biden must be forced to answer about Hunter's emails
• 09/11/20: The Dems' Dangerous Delegitimization of the Election
• 08/28/20: Biden Is Underperforming Hillary in Battleground States
• 08/14/20: Kamala Harris, Imaginary Centrist
• 07/24/20: Who you calling a fascist?
• 07/17/20: Speech Police have finally gone too far
• 07/03/20: 'But Gorsuch' Is Still Trump's Best Argument
• 06/22/20: Welcome to America's Cultural Revolution
• 06/12/20: The color of my skin is not an indictment of my morality, nor does it strip me of my agency
• 06/05/20: What this son of immigrants knows about bulding bussinesses --- and the dismay of destruction
• 05/28/20: The Folly of Twitter's Fact-Check
• 05/22/20: Dems Warning Trump Will Reject Election Results Should Look in the Mirror
• 05/15/20: Obamagate Is NOT a Conspiracy Theory
• 05/08/20: Really, Joe --- due process is the opposite of justice?