Is it just me, or has Donald Trump’s return to the White House not provoked the same unhinged reactions from the radical left as it did in 2017? In 2017, the radical left unleashed a series of extreme reactions, including mass protests, pink-hat marches, and hysterical screams into the void.
This time, while they’re certainly not happy about Trump’s comeback, there seems to be a sense of resignation. The fervor and energy behind “the resistance” aren’t what they used to be.
However, one decision from the newly inaugurated Trump administration has sent them into a frenzy: his pardoning of 1,500 J6 rioters and political prisoners.
“Tonight, the President announced pardons and commutations of sentences for those who violently attacked the Capitol and law enforcement officers on January 6th,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) whined in a post on X Monday evening. “The President's actions are an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress, and the Constitution.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called it “a grotesque display” of presidential authority during an MSNBC interview.
Obscene. Grotesque.
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) January 21, 2025
Apt descriptors for Trump’s decision to pardon people who assaulted law enforcement even as they assaulted the Capitol.
Pardoning violent insurrectionists is a terrible – but not terribly surprising – way for Donald Trump to begin his new administration. pic.twitter.com/e3hzNjOovR
The outrage from Democrats and their allies is as predictable as it is hypocritical. For years, they have selectively weaponized outrage, but they’ve forfeited anything resembling a moral high ground when it comes to presidential pardons after what Joe Biden did during his presidency. Biden’s clemency spree was a blatant abuse of the presidential pardon power.
For some important historical context about Biden’s pardon abuse, just look at the following chart.
What do you notice about this chart? pic.twitter.com/wbObs8McV2
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) January 20, 2025
As the chart shows, Biden issued more acts of clemency in four years than Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in more than 12 years. It’s also worth noting here that Democrats typically issue more pardons than Republicans, but that’s another topic for another time.
Biden not only gave blanket pardons to criminals, but he also issued preemptive pardons to allies, including members of the January 6 Committee, and then, mere minutes before leaving office, to members of his own family. These shameful actions set the stage for a partisan free-for-all, where presidential authority was wielded not for justice but for political survival.
For all the hyperventilating from Democrats, Trump’s pardons were a necessary corrective to a justice system that became a political weapon under Biden. Many January 6 convictions stemmed from a weaponized Department of Justice that trampled on constitutional rights to score political points. Some have been held without trial.
Trump has gone a step further, issuing an executive order to investigate the Biden administration’s DOJ for its role in these politically motivated prosecutions.
If Democrats want to cry foul over Trump’s actions, they should first reckon with Biden’s abuses of power. After four years of weaponizing clemency to protect their own, they’ve lost the ability to complain about Trump using his authority to rectify what many see as blatant political persecution. The left’s double standards have never been clearer — and their outrage has never been more hollow.
