Trump, the NFL players, and the pardons
Like Paul Mirengoff, you may think that Trump’s latest offer to the NFL players is absurd, a circus, and bizarre:
I understood from the beginning that the Trump presidency would be a circus, but I didn’t expect a sideshow this bizarre. President Trump has asked NFL players to recommend which criminals he should pardon.
Suddenly, the NFL kneelers have been transformed from unpatriotic sons-of-bitches to Trump’s partner in doling out justice and righting wrongs. I never thought the players were sons-of-bitches (unpatriotic, yes at least in some cases), but they certainly deserve no special standing when it comes to the clemency process.
Being the homey of an NFL player should not qualify a criminal for consideration for clemency. Indeed, the mindless, knee-jerk quality of the players’ protest (remember, it started with the shooting of Michael Brown whom even the Obama administration could not find to be a victim) suggests they are the last people Trump should seek guidance from.
Although I often agree with Mirengoff, we’re going to have to disagree on this one.
I don’t disagree on the “circus” aspect, I just don’t necessarily see the word as pejorative. A circus is theater, and politics is theater as well. If you’re going to play it successfully you have to understand that fact.
Football is a sport, but it’s also theater. The NFL players who kneel for the anthem most definitely understand that. And Trump does, too.
What he’s done here is a sort of ju-jitsu, at least potentially—an attempt to negotiate at an unexpected level and grant the more reasonable of the players’ requests, if such requests actually are reasonable. It’s somewhat akin to listening to the recommendation of Kim Kardashian in granting clemency to Alice Johnson. Disagree or agree with the action on the merits, but the fact that it was Kardashian who brought it to Trump’s attention should, IMHO, be irrelevant.
The same with the NFL players and their possible recommendations. There are plenty of ways in which attention is drawn to supposed miscarriages of justice, and presidents are required to evaluate each case in terms of whether a pardon, commutation, or nothing at all is deserved.
Obviously, presidents can’t examine every case in the world. Time and attention are limited. Here, Trump has scored some possible political points with a group that usually is not real happy with the GOP, and he’s doing it in a dramatic fashion. Seems to me to be a good idea, and his decisions about pardons and the like also seem to me to have been pretty good so far.
Of course, this could turn against him, particularly if he receives a roster of names and says “no” to them all. But my guess is that (if the NFL players cooperate at all) some of the suggested prisoners will actually be deserving of some sort of action, and that he’ll take it.
I’m starting to think the man is a wizard.
Ok, let’s see if you can hit this change up.
On another level, he finds so many ways to keep the media occupied chasing their tails. Now, they are in an uproar because he left the G-7 early to go negotiate for peace on the Korean peninsula. How can he? Has he no respect for those who do not respect him?
I think his leaving early was just his epic trolling again:
“I’ve said my piece and given you the terms. So, I’ll let you kids bicker, I’ve got to go fix the North Korea issue. Call me if you change your mind.”
The bonus is, once again, he isn’t afraid to walk away from negotiations that aren’t happening in good faith. And he knows they need us more than we need them.
Another Trump master stroke. Now, pardoning Hillary will be the apogee of Trump’s genius.
Im with Mirengoff. The players will come up with someone like Mumia Abu-Jamal or similar cop killing reprobate, Trump will reject him/her, everyone in the media will call him a racist and a white supremacist for doing it and we’ll all be back at square one, having made the office of Presidency less respected in the process.
I stopped second guessing djt about a year ago. This latest move will tamp down NFL/black resentment with Trump or turn into a fiasco. We’ll see.
Harry:
I’d be very surprised if they come up with just one name.
However, even if that happened and he refused, he’d be no worse off with that constituency than he already is now.
He’s giving them some rope to play with. We’ll see if they toss it out to save someone, or hang themselves.
Neo: Im quite sure people at Solon or similar outlet already has a quick list of desired candidates. Im sure they’re multiple. I think this will merely further cheapen the office he holds. I hope Im wrong but dont see this as worthwhile.
I think this is just a “Show me” episode and will demonstrate that the players are showboating and have not done their homework on this. Why would anyone to expect a professional athlete in 2018 to have a serious idea? The days of Whizzer White are long gone.
Poor Paul, he just hasn’t clue. I don’t doubt he is quite intelligent, but instead of stepping back and asking himself why he keeps getting things wrong, he just plows ahead with wacky analysis that just look crazy to me. He is, in a sense, too serious. Or maybe there is something in the DC air.
Scott Adams comments often about how good Trump is at this type of negotiating maneuver: countering offers with some new option where he wins either way, and by doing it publicly, it is also very persuasive to the voting public that of the parties involved, he at least is willing to talk and actually do something constructive, therefore exposing the other party as grandstanding and unserious, or bringing them to the table to do real work.
Either way, Trump is up 14-0 at halftime here. And several wrongly convicted people may yet go free, most likely black, in the months just before midterm elections, where Democrats will not do much without the usual 90% of the black vote.
There is no downside here for anybody except the kneelers. Your move guys, don’t screw it up.
I agree with you and not Mirengoff. I see three possible outcomes:
1) They react with outrage and tell Trump to go eff himself. Trump wins.
2) They submit some names, some of whom are worthy and Trump issues pardon(s). Trump wins.
3) They submit some names, and none are worthy. Trump does nothing. Trump wins.
When all paths lead to a Trump win, it is a stroke of genius.
I second most here. It’s another shrewd Trump move with huge upside and little downside.
Weirdly, I even think Trump is somewhat sincere.
There are a terrible number of blacks in prison. As Richard Pryor joked after visiting prison, justice is “Just us.” I imagine most deserve it, but it’s such a hard burden on the hearts of black families. I can’t blame them for being bitter about it.
Surely some of those blacks deserve pardons. If they are released, what a message that sends.
To be sure, it won’t heal everything. But it doesn’t take that many blacks questioning the Democrats’ plantation before the grand Democrat, multi-everything coalition fails. I’ve read analyses that if black support drops below 70%, it’s devastating for Democrats.
As Richard Pryor joked after visiting prison, justice is “Just us.”
Yeah, he also said, after visiting a prison while filming Stir Crazy, that he was very glad there were prisons, because there were some very scary people in there.
Well, they could go for the brass ring and offer up Assata Shakur/JoAnne Chesimard, since it’s her writings that inspired the three women who started the #BLM movement. Hard to think Trump hasn’t already anticipated such a controversial potential request (along with Mumia).
Perhaps the President was wondering what would happen if Oprah had pardon powers, and how HUGE it could be if he pondered pardons Oprah-style.
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I’m not sure it’s good policy, and it may be a precedent for all future presidents pandering to us for our goodwill by compelling pardon pageantry. But there’s no business like show business.
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And there is a very sound tactical element. Get the electorate so inundated with pardons that they hardly notice as a few pardons are sandwiched in to frustrate the bizarre Mueller probe — our long, suffering experiment with criminal prosecution by those on the Left so as to protect their own and to punish their adversaries.
The way it reads to me is that the President has said, “You have a grievance, you say. Let’s hear it.” This forces them to think substance rather than effectively pulling a DeNiro and shouting a contextless “F* Trump!” (or “America” or “society” or whatever). If they do have names worth considering in mind, well, that is the pardon process at work. If they don’t, they are revealed to be posturing prima donnas.