He pardoned them all. Photo by Alex Kent/States Newsroom.
Minnesota Senate Republicans have a chance to stand up for the rule of law and defend the honorable work of U.S. Capitol police officers by supporting a resolution condemning the Trump pardon of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
Based on the behavior of GOP members of the Senate judiciary committee, I wouldn’t get your hopes up for the full Senate vote on Senate Resolution 15.
Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Alexandria, voted against it, which was admirable in its honesty, even if his rationale was a classic of the false equivalency genre, citing Joe Biden’s pardons. Sen. Warren Limmer passed on voting, as did Sen. Bruce Anderson, while Sens. John Howe and Michael Kreun were absent.
More than 140 police officers were injured on Jan. 6. Judiciary committee members saw some of those injuries in a video that Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, showed at the hearing. Four officers would later take their own lives; officer Brian Sicknick, who was attacked by the mob, died of natural causes, but the medical examiner said that “all that transpired played a role in his condition.”
Limmer, a Maple Grove Republican who has chaired the committee and had a career as a correctional officer before politics, is close to the police lobby. Here he is posting to Facebook after meeting with the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association: “They need help with recruitment and retention, and that the rule of law will be applied by prosecutors and judges. These men and women do amazing work to keep us safe and they deserve our support!”
Not when it comes to the travesty of Jan. 6 and Trump’s pardons, however.
Here’s what Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara wrote in the Star Tribune: “The violence carried out against police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol — an attack fueled by anger, hatred and conspiracy theories — has left scars not only on those who were present, but on the entire law enforcement community.”
During the Wednesday hearing, Limmer gave a tour de force of evasions and excuses for why he would take the cowardly route and pass on voting.
“The pardon happened a couple of months ago.”
Old news!
“I haven’t gotten a single call from anyone in my district regarding the pardon.”
No one cares!
“With all the other issues, I find this to be somewhat of a distraction.”
Let’s talk about something else!
“I find the governor’s comments [about “our country being stolen by Nazis and fascists”] to be as insulting as the hurtful scenes I see on the film.”
!?!?!
Speaking of fascists, I can understand why Limmer wouldn’t want to talk about the pardon of Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys. He had been convicted of seditious conspiracy and was serving a 22-year sentence.
Here’s what Tarrio told Alex Jones upon his release: “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted,” Tarrio said. “Success is going to be retribution,” he added. “We gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next 100 years.”
That sounds ominous.
As CNN reported, other pardon recipients included “Devlyn Thompson, who hit a police officer with a metal baton, and Robert Palmer, a Florida man who attacked police with a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank and a pole.”
Before he took office, Vice President JD Vance said “obviously” anyone who committed violence on Jan. 6 shouldn’t be pardoned.
Nevermind!
Among the more distressing consequences of the 2024 election — among many — is the attempted erasure of history. Trump will likely never face any consequences for his crimes or trial for his many other alleged crimes.
The pardons are another attempt to obliterate the events of Jan. 6, when a mob tried to overturn a free and fair election and depose the republic.
Erasing the past would exploit America’s greatest civic sin, which is amnesia, although ignorance is the less charitable word for it.
People don’t even remember the outrages of the first Trump administration, let alone, say, Iraq or Vietnam.
Is Latz scoring political points here? Of course, and so what? He should be applauded for forcing the Minnesota Senate on the record and using his position to remind Minnesotans about the outrageous pardons.
As for Limmer, the Trump era has taught us repeatedly that honor and dignity — to paraphrase the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — can never be taken from us, senator, only freely surrendered.
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