“He criticized Trump but he didn’t mention him; it wasn’t overt,” added former Rep. Luis Gutierrez
Yet Biden was not calling for bipartisan cooperation on individual policy proposals. His was a much broader plea to turn down the temperature for the sake of preserving the country’s centuries-old experiment in democracy a sharp contrast to Trump’s speech four years ago in which he warned of the “American carnage” wrought by liberal policies. Politics doesn t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn t have to be a cause for total war,” Biden said. “And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.
I can t imagine the founders in providing for pardon power for a president anticipated that presidents would use it to reward political friends, and as a result I would hope that we could develop a tradition of more narrowly providing pardons, Romney said.
Romney said there should be a tradition of “not providing them to people who are cronies or political individuals.”
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Romney said he “would love to see a constitutional remedy” even though he acknowledged “it’s unlikely that something like that can get passed just given the difficult process of passing a constitutional amendment.”
Senators say the president’s pardon power is broad because of Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which states the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”
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Usually on Inauguration Day of a new president, his predecessor rides quietly into the sunset. Trump, with a typical lack of decency and decorum, is skipping Joe Biden
While celebrating a new era, the political world especially Republicans are vigorously debating whether Trump is a spent force or will remain a disruptive figure.
Ever since the mob assault on the Capitol and ensuing second House impeachment, Trump may be a permanent loser. His poll ratings have dropped, and businesses are running away from anything associated with the Trump brand.
Unlike the lonely figure of Mitt Romney
Even many of those Republicans opposing impeachment condemn Trump s actions and character. There almost certainly will be more damaging stuff coming out, with multiple investigations and tell-all revelations from former Trumpites trying to salvage their reputations.
Biden used his inauguration speech to urge unity after a tumultuous four years capped off by the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol when a mob of Trump supporters breached security as now-former Vice President Pence and members of Congress were ratifying Biden s electoral victory.
“To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity,” Biden said.
Biden is taking over a government that is deeply divided, with tensions in Washington running high amid an unprecedented level of security around the Capitol complex following the riot Jan. 6 that left five people dead.