Desperate to curry right-wing support, Ron DeSantis on Thursday said he would “aggressively” use presidential pardons to free people who’ve been charged or convicted of crimes – including former President Donald Trump. Via The Independent:
Speaking during an interview with hosts Buck Sexton and Clay Travis, Mr DeSantis claimed that the Department of Justice has been “weaponised” under the Biden Administration. He cited a laundry list of GOP grievances about federal law enforcement targeting conservative activists and other GOP figures who have allegedly violated federal laws.
“What I’m going to do is ... on day one, I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases, who people are victims of weaponisation or political targeting, and we will be aggressive at issuing pardons,” he said.
Mr DeSantis downplayed what he described as “technical violations of the law” and suggested he’d issue pardons for January 6 rioters because Black Lives Matter protesters have not been prosecuted to the same extent by the federal government.
Let me just make this point. It was NOT BLM protesters who ripped through my neighborhood, looting and destroying local stores. It was opportunistic criminals who organized mobs on social media, and cops who mostly let them do it. Yes, police officers in Philadelphia and elsewhere around the country were so angry at the very idea that Minneapolis police should be held accountable in the death of George Floyd, they took the attitude (widely shared on social media), "You don't like the cops? Fine, see how you do without us."
