With his sweeping Day One pardons for the vast majority of the January 6 insurrectionists, President Donald Trump committed a heinous and unforgivable attack on America that bookends his original insurrection. By loosing his loyalist army from jail and blocking ongoing investigations of those not yet convicted, Trump has declared himself an enemy of the United States — at war with democracy, at war with the rule of law, at war with ordinary citizens who have good reason to fear the return of these terrorists to their cities and towns. Particularly despicable are the pardons of leaders like Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys head Enrique Tarrio, who were for all practical purposes accomplices in Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election results, the armed muscle to his lies and legalistic mayhem about a “stolen” election.
We can’t defend our democracy if those who attack it so directly and violently are treated as above the law. This was the case when Trump evaded justice for his coup attempt, and this is the case now as his foot soldiers — whom Trump has called “political prisoners” — are freed, as if they did nothing wrong on January 6 when they beat cops, hunted down politicians, and tried to stop a duly-elected president from taking power.
Though the president has broad pardon powers, this action clearly lies outside its legitimate use. As Brian Beutler wrote in anticipation of this travesty, “Pardoning violent January 6 felons would be an impeachable violation of the president’s oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution from criminals who sought to replace it with mob rule.” But beyond a doomed yet necessary impeachment effort by House Democrats, I think it’s equally important for Democrats to communicate to the public righteously and incessantly about how Trump has started his second presidency by doubling down on lawlessness and violence through these pardons. This cannot be allowed to be just another outrageous and unstoppable thing Trump did. Like his insurrection, it is the crossing of a line that, if normalized, will change America in dangerous, anti-democratic ways that will harm and diminish us all.
So while it’s not possible at this moment to undo Trump’s act, what we can do is work to accomplish the next best thing: to forge his own action into a rhetorical weapon against him. Wielded correctly, these illegitimate pardons can stir public unease, enrage the Democratic base, introduce stirrings of regret in non-enthusiastic Trump voters — and remind America that there is such a thing as right and wrong, as good and evil. We are in a fraught moment, with a majority of voters having cast their ballots for an authoritarian sociopath, but without many of them fully comprehending the consequences of putting Trump back in power. The crimes committed by the January 6 insurrectionists — both the violence against police and the larger end of overthrowing an election — are easily understood and viscerally repugnant.
But this weapon’s potentially most important target isn’t going to be Trump — it’s going to be every single Republican elected official who greeted the pardons with either celebration or silence. This is a weapon to keep the GOP on defense for literally years, even after Trump has left the scene, as their opponents ask them the simple question: Why is it acceptable to pardon people who beat police officers and tried to overthrow democracy?
This moment is also a clear test of the Democratic Party, particularly those members of its congressional leadership like Senator Chuck Schumer whose continued calls for bipartisanship ring not just hollow but crazy, as the president they want to work with just released from jail the mobs that tried to kill many of them. There is no point in treating Donald Trump like a normal partner in government, surely not after these pardons. Ordinary Americans will not automatically understand the full horror and meaning of Trump’s action, but they will have a far better chance of doing so if the Democrats respond with the appropriate levels of contempt and condemnation — which does not involve critiquing Trump out of one side of the mouth while praising him as a reasonable partner from the other.
It is simply not credible to think that Donald Trump’s lawlessness will stop with these January 6 pardons. Indeed, it has not, with other first day actions that included a direct attack on birthright citizenship (which is unambiguously guaranteed by the Constitution). The Democrats, to maintain their credibility as a major political party, must defend the rule of law. Even more obviously, they must defend Americans from violent threats. The January 6 pardons touch on both cardinal responsibilities; if they fail to treat then with the appropriate level of seriousness, it won’t just be Donald Trump who’s crossed an unforgivable line.
With a “shock and awe” strategy that views the American people as an opponent to be subdued, the incoming Trump administration hopes to create the appearance of strength to compensate for the outrageous and largely unpopular far-right agenda Trump is embarking on. Trump and his allies truly want Democrats and ordinary citizens to assume that they’ve already lost, that Trump is simply unstoppable. I don’t have to tell you how absurd it would be to buy into this transparently self-serving strategy by going along with it. Attacking the January 6 pardons would mean attacking Trump exactly where he wants us to believe he’s most powerful, but most certainly is not. The pardons were a reckless, high-risk, high-reward move, and none of us should let this fresh round of insurrectionism get passed off as business as usual.