On Wednesday, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson (R-LA), in a press conference, slammed the Biden administration’s last-minute pardons and lauded President Donald Trump’s first 48 days. He makes some great points. First, on the pardons:
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Speaker Mike Johnson: “It was shocking what President Biden did on the way out, pardoning his family for more than a decade of whatever activity, any non-violent offenses.” pic.twitter.com/AUqDwLkGG6
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 22, 2025
The Speaker says:
It was shocking, what President Biden did on the way out, pardoning his family for more than a decade of whatever activity, any non-violent offenses. It was breathtaking to us, I don’t think that anything like that has been anticipated. And by the way, go look at the tape, you know? Four years ago, when it was just implied that President Trump might do something similar, they were apoplectic. Joe Biden himself, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, roll the tape, they all said that would be crazy and unconscionable, and now they’re cheering it along. To us, it is disgusting, to us it probably proves the point, the suspicion, that, you know, they call it the Biden crime family, if they weren’t the crime family, why do they need pardons, right? Look, there’s a lot of attention that’s going to be paid to this, I think that is appropriate, and we will be looking at it as well.
Here’s the thing: A president’s pardon power, under the Constitution, is essentially limitless, and preemptive pardons are a part of that power; I’m not a lawyer, but my Townhall colleague Kurt Schlichter is, and he recently did a VIP piece on the presidential pardon power that’s worth reading. Kurt says:
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The president has the absolute power to pardon federal crimes, but only federal crimes. He can’t pardon state crimes. For federal crimes, it’s an unlimited power. This means that there are no limitations on how a president exercises it. People keep trying to create limitations that don’t exist. “Oh, you can’t pardon a crime that hasn’t been charged.” Of course you can. It’s an unlimited power. It’s not limited to pardoning crimes that have been charged. And that is how it’s been used in practice as well. Ford pardoned Nixon even though he wasn’t charged with any crimes. Carter pardoned the draft dodgers even though they hadn’t been charged with any crimes. A president can pardon for bad reasons, like to protect his scumbag family and scumbag political allies like Liz Cheney. Again, the Constitution doesn’t limit the power to just using it for good reasons or for any reason at all.
Assuming Kurt is correct, and I have no reason to doubt his knowledge in this matter, there’s not much that can be done about the Biden pardons other than to point out the overweening Democrat hypocrisy involved.
The Speaker wasn’t done yet. On the president’s running start:
🔥Speaker Mike Johnson: President Trump has done more in the last 48 hours for the American people than Joe Biden did in four years. pic.twitter.com/AjxTELi21u
— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) January 22, 2025
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Speaker Johnson says:
Now the president has wasted no time either, as you saw, as has been mentioned, the executive orders, just in the past two days, a couple of highlights. Listen to this list: He ended catch and release, he shut down the ridiculous CBP One app, he began restoring American energy dominance already, restored merit-based hiring for the federal government, and eliminated DEI initiatives, ended the radical gender ideology madness, and revoked the security clearances of the former intelligence officials who signed the bogus and discredited letter about Hunter Biden’s laptop. President Trump truly has, as Whip Emmer said, he has done more in the last 48 hours for the American people than Joe Biden did in four years. And this is just the beginning of much more to come.
I’d take exception to the Speaker’s statement in one regard: I would say that President Trump has, in the last 48 hours, done more to the benefit of the American people than Joe Biden did, not in four years, but in his entire career. Joe Biden’s entire career has been focused not on public service but on graft, self-enrichment, and personal promotion, and we’re well rid of him.
See Related: ‘We Are So Back’: Trump 2.0 in Full Effect As POTUS Neutralizes Reporter As Only He Can
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The Biden pardon debacle still stinks, of course. It stinks like a dead carp left in the trunk of a car for two weeks in the middle of an August heat wave in Missouri. But it is apparently legal. Hypocrisy, though, can be punished; it can be punished at the ballot box. Democrats everywhere have looked the other way as Joe Biden(‘s handlers) tossed around presidential pardons like confetti, so they can scarcely object to President Trump doing the same for people who have inarguably been abused by a biased legal system – like the J6 prisoners.
It’s been 48 hours. In one thing Speaker Johnson is inarguably correct: President Trump has hit the ground running, and this is only the beginning. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, whose bust now once more occupies an honored place in the Oval Office, it’s not the beginning of the end or even the end of the beginning; it’s just the beginning of the beginning. Watch, folks, because this is how history is made.
