Pardon Me, But This Is Bullshit

Joe Biden or whoever is running the White House can absolve anyone they please, but Anthony Fauci needs to stand tall before the man. The world is owed answers

They’re laughing at us now. From Politico:

White House officials… are carefully weighing the extraordinary step of handing out blanket pardons to those who’ve committed no crimes… [worried] it could suggest impropriety, only fueling Trump’s criticisms, and because those offered preemptive pardons may reject them… mentioned by Biden’s aides for a pardon is Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who became a lightning rod for criticism from the right during the Covid-19 pandemic.

If Anthony Fauci gets a “blanket” pardon, he’ll wrap himself and sleep in it. Plan B was living under an assumed name in Argentina, dressed in the Anthony Hopkins vacation suit from Silence of the Lambs. Throughout the pandemic the NIAID head showed he was willing to do anything, from shuttering schools to lying to Congress to making private campaign stops at intelligence agencies to urge investigators off his path, to keep the ick of scandal off his person. He won’t reject squat.

The Politico piece by Jonathan Martin might be the first of the era that needs to be read entirely between the lines. White House officials are “carefully weighing” preemptive pardons really means White House officials already decided, but are publicly floating the idea. Pardons for “those who’ve committed no crimes” means those who’ve committed crimes. “Could suggest impropriety” would admit impropriety. Criticism from “the right” is criticism from all. It goes on: