John W. Dean (remember him from Watergate?) posted this on BlueSky:
Many people who replied to this idea on X vehemently disagreed with this (read here). Here are the replies to what he posted on BlueSky.
Update:
I think Biden should pardon everyone who by any stretch of the imagination of a blinded by the bright burning flames of revenge Donald Trump could be a target of revenge. He should pardon not only the obvious enemies and critics but right this minute should have staff compiling a list of everyone Trump may order the DOJ to go after if Biden has pardoned people like Mueller, Jack Smith, Fauci, Schiff, and Liz Cheney. (My partner just reminded me that he should also pardon Michael Cohen. I also thought of anyone who testified against Trump in congress like the Vindeman brothers, hope Hicks, and anyone on this list.)
The big point of controversy will be whether or not he should also issue a pardon for Trump now that there isn't a snowballs chance in Hell he'll ever set foot inside of a prison.
By now everyone who enjoyed the uncountable cartoons of Trump in prison must know this will never happen.
The only possiblity Trump will get his just rewards for his crimes is in an afterlife if such a thing exists.
Then hopefully he'll spend eternity being seduced by a Stormy Daniels lookalike and having sharks repeatedly neutering him. (Side note: We just watched 53 episodes of the fun series The Good Place. It is also a show that addresses ethics and these aspects of it have been the subject of a number of serious articles, "5 Moral Philosophy Concepts Featured on The Good Place" for example. Referencing the show when it comes to the ethical and moral dilemma faced by Biden when it comes to pardoning Trump is relevant. While there are political implications to this on balance I think it is the ethical and moral thing to do.
If you've seen the series you know about all the methods of torture described by the demons designed specifically for individuals in the Bad Place, Hell, so I had to come up with one just for Trump. This also gave me an excuse to use the AI illustration above for today's blog.)
If Biden pardoned Trump it would open the question as to whether he'd accept it, or as appears to be possible (read article here) to refuse it. My sense of his personality is that he would refuse to accept the pardon. He'd see this as giving Biden a win and there's no way he would do this.
I still think that it would be worth it for Biden to pardon Trump just to put him in the position of having to refuse to accept the pardon.
I also think Biden should order a review of the cases against all the J6 insurrectionists to determine who didn't commit acts of violence causing serious injury and pardon them. This would force those who are in prison or still facing prison to decide whether to accept the pardons or wait for Trump to pardon them. Biden should do this as soon as possible so they can spend Christmas at home.
It would test their belief that Trump would follow through on his promise to free them and force them to wait until late January.
If enough non-violent offenders accepted pardon by Biden it would leave Trump having to pardon the most violent of them. This would be a bad look for Trump among many people.
World events won't be coming to a halt so Biden will be busy with other matters of importance, but I am sure he has people he trusts to compile a pardon list so all he'd have to do is sign it.
This will also be a good excuse for Biden to address the nation and give a speech about how his pardon for Trump is an attempt to bring the nation together. He could have his Gerald Ford moment.
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Primary Hal Brown's Blog website is halbrown.org (if you are reading this anywhere else any additions or corrections will be at this address)
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