Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons set a precedent that might fuel more political violence | Opinion

I blame Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

It’s because of those men, and other Republican “leaders” across the Carolinas, that the ugliest precedent has been set in the supposedly freest, most democratic country in the world.

A president can now convince thousands of Americans to violently attack our democracy on his behalf, then provide those attackers pardons and commutations for carrying out his wishes.

The implications couldn’t be more sobering, or scary.

President Donald Trump basically issued a blanket pardon for about 1,500 people who were involved in the violent insurrection attempt on our Capitol Building that will forever now just be known as Jan. 6. Those pardons were issued to people who were convicted of misdemeanors, and those who were convicted of committing violent acts — including insurrectionists who beat law enforcement officials during an event in which 140 of them were injured.

I blame Sens. Graham and Scott and Tillis and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC.

They had a chance to prevent this outcome but valued personal and party power more.

Former Rep. Tom Rice was the only Republican member of the House of Representatives from the Carolinas who had the courage to vote to impeach Trump for what should have been seen as traitorous behavior — because it was. How can violently attacking your own country to overthrow the government not be? For Rice’s troubles, Republican voters in the 7th Congressional District of South Carolina quickly ousted him from office. Rice wasn’t against Trump. He voted with the president time and again. He just believed inspiring thousands of people to attack the country was wrong.

North Carolina’s Richard Burr showed similar courage in the Senate.

“The evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” the former North Carolina senator said in a statement at the time.

Burr was serving his final term. That didn’t stop fellow North Carolina Republicans from censuring him for doing the right thing.

I also blame Rep. Patrick McHenry and Rep. Dan Bishop and Rep. Ted Budd (now Sen. Budd) and Rep. Madison Cawthorn and Rep. Virginia Foxx and Rep. Richard Hudson and Rep. David Rouzer and Rep. Greg Murphy, all of North Carolina, and Rep. Ralph Norman and Rep. Jeff Duncan and Rep. William Timmons and Rep. Joe Wilson, of South Carolina.

They watched a mob try to destroy the Capitol Building to prevent Congress from certifying an election Joe Biden had won and Trump had lost and then decided to protect Trump from what should have been the immediate consequences of his actions. The attack was part of broader efforts to effectively end the peaceful transfer of power democracies can’t live without.

That set the stage for what we saw earlier this week when Trump set a ghastly precedent that might be used by future presidents. They might order someone to commit political violence in their name with an assurance that they can escape punishment.

It’s easy to get distracted by the firehose of news lately and forget the importance of those blanket pardons. This week has included a full court press of activity by the newly sworn-in Trump. He’s had multiple press conferences and signed more than 100 executive orders, including one to try to wipe away constitutionally-protected birthright citizenship. And then there was top Trump supporter Elon Musk, who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help get Trump elected, performing what sure looked like Nazi salutes behind the seal of the President of the United States.

There will be more things, more outrageous tweets and executive orders from Trump, many more, some more consequential than others. We are back in the Trump whirlwind, like what we experienced the first four years he was in office. We should expect that to be the reality for the next four years. It will be hard keeping up with everything.

There will be time to think through all those issues, to debate, to argue, to resist in a variety of ways.

But we should not let the pardons of insurrectionists fade from headlines too soon.

We must not forget. Our democracy is counting on us to never forget.

This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM.