Conversation

I'd like to see a comparison that has a breakdown of *types* of pardon: 1. Clemency appeals via due process with no grift 2. Grift market based on $ and lobbying by wealthy 3. POTUS-initiated pardons based on personal selfless interest 4. Strategic political favors
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I wouldn't actually expect Trump to top the charts on any of the 4 categories, but I'd expect 2 and 4 to dominate. He's too uninterested in others unless he is in the equation himself. The NYT article is really bad. Like journalistic malpractice bad.
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It seemed to suggest that somehow Trump was the worst offender on this front, and besides the one qualified Clinton comparison, did not contextualize his clemency record against modern presidents. I googled and found the Pew article after smelling a fish reading the NYT one.
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Telling this story honestly but with nuance still would still tell a bad-enough portrait of Trump as a more self-dealing user of the clemency power than most. But they wrote it instead in a weirdly unnecessary dishonest way.
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