“I solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and that to the best of my ability I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Donald Trump said Monday during his inauguration as president. of 47th president. Soon after, he moved quickly to violate this solemn oath by attacking the rule of law in multiple ways.
Trump chose to ignore a law duly passed by Congress and signed into law by his predecessor by signing an executive order that gives TikTok a 75-day period to find a US buyer. He turned his back on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and more than a century of jurisprudence by ordering federal agencies to no longer recognize the citizenship of children born on American soil to foreign parents. He violated government advisory group transparency laws by creating the Department of Government Effectiveness to be headed by Elon Musk.
The list of laws and rights that Trump violated on his first day is long. But none of the Republican president’s assaults on the rule of law are more troubling than his decision to pardon or commute the prison sentences of those convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol. Group that includes Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio, former leaders of the far-right groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who were sentenced to long sentences after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Even Vice President JD Vance declared on Sunday that no presidential pardon should be granted to people who committed acts of violence on January 6, 2021.
But Trump didn’t just erase the crimes committed in his name at the Capitol in 2021. He also tried to rewrite history.
“What they did to these people is outrageous,” he said during his press conference in the Oval Office. “Even people who have been aggressive, and in many cases I think they are outside agitators. But what do I know? I think that’s the case. I think they were outside agitators. They were outside agitators. And obviously the FBI was involved. »
At the time of writing, Republican Senators Thom Tillis (North Carolina) and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) were the only two, if not the only, members of their party in Congress to have criticized these pardons and commutations. GOP senators could defend the rule of law by refusing to confirm as FBI director Kash Patel, who also believes in conspiracy theories attributing responsibility for January 6 to the FBI. It’s sad to think that they would need the courage to make the right decision.
-PS: Eighteen US states have filed a lawsuit to overturn Trump’s executive order intended to end land tenure for children born in the United States to illegal parents.
(Photos Getty Images)
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