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2 Days In and the Wheels are already flying off the Clown Car [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-23

We could have predicted this. Many of us did. Despite all the warnings shown in Project 2025 some people are still shocked — shocked — by Drumph’s initial actions on returning to the White House.

Less than a week ago JD Vance announced that there would be no pardons for those who acted violently on J6. — and yeah, whoops.

President Trump's sweeping pardons for 1,500 Jan. 6 criminals and defendants were a last-minute, rip-the-bandage-off decision to try to move past the issue quickly, White House advisers familiar with the Trump team's discussions tell Axios. Why it matters: Trump's move to "go big" on the pardons sheds light on his unpredictable decision-making process, and shows his determination to fulfill a campaign promise to his MAGA base — regardless of political fallout. How it happened: Eight days before the inauguration, Vice President-to-be JD Vance — channeling what he believed to be Trump's thinking — said on "Fox News Sunday" that Jan. 6 convicts who assaulted police ought not get clemency: "If you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned." Trump vacillated during an internal debate over targeted clemency vs. a blanket decision according to two insiders.

during an internal debate over targeted clemency vs. a blanket decision according to two insiders. But as Trump's team wrestled with the issue, and planned a shock-and-awe batch of executive orders Day 1, "Trump just said: 'F -k it: Release 'em all,'" an adviser familiar with the discussions said. Catch up quick: Trump's decision was a surprise to some Republicans in Congress, who grimaced at the appearance of the new president condoning violence against police officers. On Jan. 7, 2021, the day after his supporters rioted at the Capitol to protest the 2020 election, Trump decried those who "defiled" the building. But as his own legal problems mounted during his campaign, Trump came to embrace the cause of those charged in the riot. On the campaign trail, he began playing a version of the National Anthem sung by jailed protestors who called themselves the "J6 Prison Choir." After he was elected, Trump told "Meet the Press" on Dec. 8 that he'd pardon Jan. 6 convicts and defendants on Day 1: "I'm going to be acting very quickly."

He didn't rule out clemency for those accused or convicted of attacking police, but said: "We're going to look at individual cases." Between the lines: Early in the internal discussions, Vance actually had advocated for a blanket pardon. But the Yale-trained lawyer figured Trump wouldn't want to take the hit for releasing notorious convicts. The case-by-case review was onerous. Trump staffers wondered whom to pardon and who might slip through the cracks.

Time was running out heading into Inauguration Day. Trump wanted to pardon as many people as possible and get it over with, so he landed on clemency for everyone.

So he pardoned and commuted sentences for everyone, violent and nonviolent alike. Those who beat cops and those who stood around and gawked at the spectacle. It doesn’t matter, nobody did anything wrong, nobody committed a crime — move along now, move along.

This decision seems to have caused some consternation among a few Republicans.

Writing at Politico, former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori argues that Trump is likely deluding himself if he believes he can simply execute a mass pardon of violent criminals and not have it come back to haunt him. The reason for this, he contends, is that people convicted of violent crimes have high rates of recidivism after leaving prison and it's unlikely that the people who attacked Capitol police and were then valorized by Trump as "hostages" for years will be any different. "We may see and read stories in the years to come involving Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump who went on to commit more — and potentially more serious — crimes," he warns. "This is not idle speculation. Several people who received pardons or commutations in the final days of Trump’s first term went on to be charged with committing more crimes." He writes that this is likely to be particularly true of the most hardened January 6th participants such as members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia. "Trump has once again sent a disturbing message to his supporters: If you engage in political violence on my behalf, I will protect you," he writes. "Tarrio, Rhodes and their associates should feel emboldened, and there is no telling what they will do with Trump now firmly behind them." The bottom line, he concludes, is that Trump "may not be so lucky" if he thinks that his mass pardon will forever close the book on January 6, 2021.

Yeah, that.

And then you have the people who are less friendly to the idea.

And then you have the reaction of several of the officers who were beaten.

And further.

x x YouTube Video Dunn has said he still suffers from post traumatic stress disorder after defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in what has been called “likely the largest single-day, mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.” "Man, I'm just so frustrated with everybody's indifference and apathy leading up to this," Dunn told CNN's Jim Acosta on Wednesday. Trump gave the order on his first day back in office to pardon all 1,500 of the criminals and defendants involved in the riots. Despite Vice President J.D. Vance and Attorney General Nominee Pam Bondi contending that the violent offenders should be held accountable, "Trump just said: 'F--- it: Release 'em all,'" a White House adviser told Axios. Acosta asked, "Does the government need to provide protection to certain members of the Capitol Police Department who were assaulted that day, D.C. Police Department who were assaulted that day, and are now worried that now that these people have been released, that they pose a danger to those officers?" Acosta continued, "As you know, Harry, there have been relatives of some of these rioters who turned them in. One has to assume that those family members who turned in their relatives because they were involved on January 6th, that they have to be fearful. Doesn't the government need to do something about this?" Dunn answered, "Sure, those are all valid concerns. And, yeah, one would think, right, that these people, when they testified or these witnesses that gave information, they did it to help the government. So why not the government should help them? Every case, I guess, is different, you know, depending on what people want and how people feel and their safety. But, I think, isn't that the job of the Justice Department, isn't that the job of the president to protect their citizens, to protect those who stand up for what's right for American People?" "But, Harry, the president is now Donald Trump," Acosta said. "What is your message to him after he's done this?" "The same thing it's been for the last four years — you're wrong!" Dunn exclaimed. "You're wrong, and you should be ashamed of yourself!" Dunn and the other officers who protected the Capitol on that day received the Presidential Citizens Medal from Joe Biden in 2023.

Rep. Jim McGovern gives a highlighted list of the 400 violent felons from Stewart Rhodes to Guy Refitt to Enrique Tarrio who Drumph just pardoned.

Federal Judge Tanya Chutkin was much more blunt.

In a Wednesday post to his Bluesky account, Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney noted that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan didn't hold back in her criticism of the 47th president of the United States — a former defendant in her courtroom. She wrote in a filing pertaining to one current defendant's case that Trump's decision to pardon roughly 1,500 people charged and convicted in connection to the riot "cannot undo the 'rampage [that] left multiple people dead, injured more than 140 people and inflicted millions of dollars in damage." "It cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake," Chutkan continued. "And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America's sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power." "In hundreds of cases like this one over the past four years, judges in this district have administered justice without fear or favor," she added. "The historical record established by those proceedings must stand, unmoved by political winds, as a testament and as a warning."

But it doesn’t stop there, not when you have Steve Bannon calling for a criminal investigation of the J6 Judges.

During a Wednesday interview with self-styled MAGA reporter Julie Kelly, Bannon noted that mainstream media were "melting down" after President Donald Trump issued 1,500 pardons for Jan. 6 rioters. "My sources are telling me, Steve, that the judges in Washington are responsible for slow-walking the release of the defendants in the D.C. courthouse," Kelly reported. "These are judges who have expressed open contempt for Donald Trump in their courtrooms in their court filings. They consider January 6 an act of domestic terrorism."

Because, it was terrorism.

"J6, obviously, President Trump is very dear to his heart is — also central to the to our mission because it gets back to the fedsurrection," Bannon opined. "It gets back to the stolen 2020 election, and we're not gonna let go." "It's deeper even than the J6 guys. The J6 guys are symbolic of a corruption in our system that goes all the way back to taking out Richard Nixon," he continued. "It's worse under Trump because it was an entire system. This has to be a massive criminal investigation. Let me say it right here on the 22nd of January in the year of our Lord 2025, and let's name names. I want the top five judges the judges are going to be under a criminal investigation." "You're not impervious. You can be impeached, and one way you can be impeached is be subject to a criminal investigation... We are going to impeach these judges. They cannot be allowed to sit on the bench."

Lest we think this is just Bannon bloviating, Speaker Mike Johnson has announced a New J6 investigation that will no doubt attempt to shift blame for thi attack onto Nancy Pelosi, Antifa and the FBI.

Politico's Kyle Cheney reported via Bluesky, "This morning, Speaker Johnson said he won't 'second-guess' Donald Trump's pardons of Jan. 6 defendants and said 'We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forwards.' Then he ordered up an investigation of the Jan. 6 committee." Per Cheney's report, Johnson has "announced plans to appoint a new select subcommittee — led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) — to take aim at the work of the previous Jan. 6 subcommittee that first" investigated the Capitol attack. "The president’s made his decision; I don’t second guess those," the speaker said. "We move forward, there are better days ahead of us, that’s what we’re excited about." Loudermilk, according to Cheney, had a different perspective. The Georgia lawmaker "told reporters Wednesday that 'looking backwards' was a key aspect of the panel’s ability to make changes for the future." Loudermilk added, "You’ve got to look backwards to look forward."

Loudermilk was the author of a report that wrongly accused Liz Cheney of witness tampering and also led a surveillance tour of rioters through the Capitol on Jan 5th. So sure, he’s “objective.”

This is a snipe hunt.

But this dramatic overreach has already become par for the course. Banning and putting all DEI workers on leave. Tons of no-nothing nominees, embarrassing themselves in the Senate. Sending the military to the border to execute immigration raids at Schools and Churches.

And yet they tell us they will only remove “criminal migrants” and only those who have already been given deportation orders?

BullShit.

Tom Homan has already stated that when faced with a mixed-status family — they will remove them all, including children born in the US. This is why Drumph has already attacked Birthright Citizenship in violation of the 14th Amendment.

He's not going to show any restraint, he’s not going to allow any subtle distinctions. He’s going to order the Springfield Haitians out of the country even though they are here legally under TPS status. He’s already shut down the CBP-One app which allows migrants to schedule a legal asylum meeting.

The raids have already begun and are having a devastating impact.

The country’s agricultural sector is in full-blown panic mode as President Donald Trump’s long-promised mass deportations are starting to become a reality in farming communities across the United States. And the ripple effect could soon hit supermarkets, as the chaos surrounding Trump’s strict immigration policies – which already include stepped-up ICE raids – are already threatening to send food prices soaring before long, according to a report in The New Republic. “Bakersfield, California saw a massive drop off in the number of field workers showing up for work Tuesday while ICE agents in unmarked Chevy Suburbans rounded up and detained immigrants in the area, profiling individuals they believed to be field workers,” the outlet reported. The roundup resulted in acres of oranges left unpicked in the California sun during the most active period of the season. Many undocumented workers have reportedly been targeted where day laborers and field workers are known to gather, including “walking in and out of gas stations, getting breakfast, at Home Depot, or while driving along the 99 Highway,” leaving many too fearful to show up to work. Casey Creamer, president of the industry group California Citrus Mutual, told CalMatters that the events “sent shockwaves through the entire community.” “People aren’t going to work and kids aren’t going to school,” Creamer told the publication. “Yesterday about 25% of the workforce, today 75% didn’t show up.”

Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

He’s not just going after “criminals" — he’s going after each and every migrant even if they’ve been here for decades. Even if they’ve law-abiding that entire time.

This isn’t about crime or national security, it’s about xenophobia and paranoia.

And just like the blanket J6 pardon, this is going to backfire.

Because exactly what has any of this to do with the price of eggs?

x x YouTube Video Raskin began, "All these fine speeches and all these fancy parties with billionaires and congressmen in tuxedos, all these executive orders for big oil and the tech 'broligarchs,' and these pardons for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and violent extremists who chanted, 'Hang Mike Pence!' and smashed and wounded our police officers in this building with steel poles, baseball bats and confederate flags. All this sound and fury on day one and week one, but nothing to bring down grocery prices or nothing to bring down the cost of rent as they promised, nothing to improve our health care system or build on our success in the last Congress in reducing prescription drug prices, nothing to get health insurance coverage for millions of people who don't have it, nothing to bring down the cost of housing or build new housing, nothing to combat the nightmare of climate change other than the full-scale retreat of withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, nothing to address the real problems faced by the American people." Raskin then addressed the matter at hand, having to do with immigration enforcement. "So, today they want to change the subject from the indelible and shocking public safety disaster of the president releasing hundreds of convicted felons, specifically violent cop-beating felons caught on tape in the act whom he incited January 6, 2021, back into the population with no plan for protecting the American people or the public safety. So, what do they want to talk about today in their wisdom? Public safety and immigration!" Raskin went on to describe Republican-backed bills proposed to solve the immigration problem, "tiny little messaging bills that move a few words around, but don't fundamentally change anything." In his statement during Wednesday's hearing on immigration enforcement, Raskin slammed the House GOP for enabling Trump's stunts by promoting "tiny little messaging bills" that accomplished nothing. Raskin began, "All these fine speeches and all these fancy parties with billionaires and congressmen in tuxedos, all these executive orders for big oil and the tech 'broligarchs,' and these pardons for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and violent extremists who chanted, 'Hang Mike Pence!' and smashed and wounded our police officers in this building with steel poles, baseball bats and confederate flags. All this sound and fury on day one and week one, but nothing to bring down grocery prices or nothing to bring down the cost of rent as they promised, nothing to improve our health care system or build on our success in the last Congress in reducing prescription drug prices, nothing to get health insurance coverage for millions of people who don't have it, nothing to bring down the cost of housing or build new housing, nothing to combat the nightmare of climate change other than the full-scale retreat of withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, nothing to address the real problems faced by the American people." Raskin then addressed the matter at hand, having to do with immigration enforcement. "So, today they want to change the subject from the indelible and shocking public safety disaster of the president releasing hundreds of convicted felons, specifically violent cop-beating felons caught on tape in the act whom he incited January 6, 2021, back into the population with no plan for protecting the American people or the public safety. So, what do they want to talk about today in their wisdom? Public safety and immigration!" Raskin went on to describe Republican-backed bills proposed to solve the immigration problem, "tiny little messaging bills that move a few words around, but don't fundamentally change anything."

All of this is performative, it’s all to appease the MAGA base — but it’s going to piss-off the rest of the nation. It’s not going to help with crime or the prices of groceries other than to cause them to increase as AG workers who are migrants are pulled out of the supply chain. And Drumph’s tariffs make that even worse.

So far he’s shown no restraint, no moderation and no limit to his bloody-minded mendacity.

That’s gonna bite him badly in the end.

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