Opinion: President Trump’s clemency grants are not a problem

President Trump cannot seem to do anything right in the political left’s eyes. 

Stories of Trump using his power to grant clemency to a number of individuals has saturated the news. Though offering a second chance to criminals sounds like a good thing, that is the opposite of what the media portrayed. 

This series of pardons is really not a big deal. It’s just another example of the near unfathomable media
hatred for Trump. 

“Trump’s pardons show his contempt for the law,” “Trump abuses the presidential pardon power,” “Trump’s corrupt pardon spree has just begun,” are all headlines within the last few weeks since the president has begun commuting sentences and bailing out adversaries.

The controversy primarily surrounds the decision to pardon Bernard Kerik, a decorated police officer who cheated on his taxes, and commute the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, a former Democrat governor of Illinois who tried to sell Obama’s senate seat (convicted in 2009). Blagojevich had already served eight years of his 14-year sentence when Trump decided to send him home to his family. 

Article 2 Section 2 Clause 1 of the Constitution makes it clear that a president can essentially pardon anyone
he pleases: 

“The President … shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment,” it reads. 

Legally, the president has virtually free range as to whom he chooses to pardon. The choice remains highly subjective.

In other words, the media is taken aback that Trump dares to exercise his constitutional right. 

But they are not actually questioning the president’s right to pardon. If they were, they would have cried foul during the Obama presidency, given that Obama’s rate of granting clemency was more than 55 times higher than Trump’s. One of Obama’s pardons even included Puerto Rican terrorist Oscar Lopez.

Let that sink in. According to Pew Research, Obama’s clemency grants amount to 1,927. Of those clemency grants, 212 were pardons and the rest were commuted sentences. All compared to Trump’s total of 35.  

Presidents can grant clemency as much or as little as they like, so there really is nothing newsworthy about Trump doing it less than any president since at least the 1800s according to Pew Research Center. 

The reason this miniscule decision is headlining all over the world is simple. The liberal-dominated media have it out for Trump.

The Democratic Party has incessantly called for the decriminalization of everything from border crossing to drug use to performing transgender surgery on children. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed a plan to completely decriminalize border crossings and do away with Trump’s “racist wall.” Andrew Yang called for heroin users to be granted “safe consumption and safe injection sites around the country.” 

So, Trump begins playing the Democratic Party’s game, even bailing out a member of the Democratic Party, then all of the sudden the media screams law and order. 

In an obsessive attempt to slam Trump for the supposedly unthinkable action of being a human, the left has rejected the doctrines of humility and grace, casting blame on his every move as irredeemable. 

What this shows is that it does not matter what Trump does or does not do. In the eyes of the media, he will always be the man who can do no good.

Smith is an opinion writer.