Trump's Sinister Attempt to Whitewash History

Harry Litman

The days and weeks bring cascades of constitutional outrages from the Trump administration, and there is a risk that they all pool together. But the downpour of seventy-seven pardons earlier this week, covering nearly the entire band of confederates who willingly put in with Trump to steal the 2020 election, is an outlier and historic outrage even by Trump’s standards.

Just for starters, the pardons covered all the core figures, including the unindicted co-conspirators, who came within view of preventing the peaceful transfer of power to the duly elected Biden Administration. It was a despicable assault on the republic itself, the worst since at least the Civil War and perhaps in the nation’s history. It did incalculable damage to all the people the January 6 insurrection harmed, beginning with the more than 140 officers who were injured during the attack.

The ultimate harm, however, is to all of us. Trump’s shameless design is to whitewash history while lionizing the plotters and terrorists who abetted his attempted coup.

Trump’s statement announcing the pardons was nothing less than infuriating: he referred to the seventy-seven as “victims of political persecution” who were “targeted for defending the Constitution.” Trump’s proclamation declared that the pardons “end a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continue the process of national reconciliation.”

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/trumps-sinister-attempt-to-whitewash