Cheered by supporters in a packed arena Monday night, President Donald J. Trump publicly signed executive orders freezing federal hiring and regulations, directing agencies to curb inflation, and withdrawing America from the Paris climate accords. He teased of much, much more to come.
“Oh, you’re going to be happy reading newspapers tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day,” Trump said.
Trump delivered on that promise an hour later in the Oval Office, signing pardons for nearly 1,600 people convicted of crimes related to the violent attempt on Jan. 6, 2021 to block the certification of his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. He called them “J6 hostages.”
He also signed an order aimed at ending the longstanding constitutional provision providing “birthright citizenship” to any baby born in the U.S. regardless of the immigration status of their parents. Connecticut’s attorney general, William Tong, promised Monday night he would file suit.
“This is a war on American families waged by a president with zero respect for our Constitution. We will sue imminently, and I have every confidence we will win,” said Tong, the son of immigrants. “The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says — if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop. There is no legitimate legal debate on this question.”
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., one of the senators who sheltered under armed guard while police fought to regain control of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said on MSNBC that the pardons were an endorsement of political violence and “the most unconscionable act” of Trump’s busy first day.
“The bedrock that has kept us standing for 240 years is that we don’t endorse violence as a means to grab power,” Murphy said. “That’s what those protesters, that’s what those rioters, were doing. They were storming the Capitol, beating police officers over the head with flag poles, in order to seize power for their leader.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, one of the last House members evacuating the House chamber that day, said on social media that the pardons were “a grotesque abuse of authority and a betrayal of our democracy.”
Earlier, Tong had said that Democratic state attorneys general waiting to challenge the president on first-day actions were left “shadow boxing.” Trump had identified his targets without immediately providing texts showing the precise methods of attack.
“It is hard to know at this moment what powers he’s going to invoke and in what manner,” Tong told reporters at a late-afternoon press conference in Hartford, while Trump’s fans awaited his arrival at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.
The text of the birthright order had not been obtained Monday night.
Tong outlined his standard for challenging a president who promises to eliminate birthright citizenship, federalize state National Guards in the service of deportations, roll back clean air standards and curtail the rights and recognition of transgender persons.
“When I act, I will be guided by a very simple test: Does the action impact or harm people in Connecticut or Connecticut families?” Tong said. “No. 2, do we have good plans and defenses? No. 3, do we have standing? If all three of those prongs are satisfied, I am likely to act.”
Tong, who was attorney general for the last two years of Trump’s first term, thought days ago he might have more information by 4 p.m. on Inauguration Day. It was not to be, though the White House issued a series of statements on the executive orders Monday night.
“Let me just say we’re responding in real time,” said Tong, one of 23 Democratic state attorneys general.
With inauguration events moved indoors due to cold temperatures and wind chill, the arena that normally is a venue for NHL, NBA and college games became the site of an indoor inaugural parade, a campaign-style rally and, finally, an executive order signing ceremony at a small desk on a broad stage.
On the desk were a stack of executive orders, each in a hard-cover folder, and a neat array of the black sharpies the president prefers in signing documents. An aide briefly described each one, then the president signed and held them aloft for the applauding crowd.
Awaiting him at the Oval Office, he told the cheering crowd, were papers pardoning persons convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.
“I will also sign an order directing every federal agency to preserve all records pertaining to political persecutions under the last administration of which there were many, and beginning the process of exposing any and all abuses of power, even though he’s pardoned many of these people,” Trump said.
He was referring to Biden’s preemptive pardons protecting members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack.
“All they want to do is go after the J6 hostages,” Trump said of the Justice Department under his predecessor. “A 76-year-old grandmother was arrested the other day because she was looking, I think because she was looking, at the Capitol or something like that. Now we’re not going to put up with that crap anymore.”
Presidential pardons are beyond legal challenge. Tong’s focus was on orders that could be fought in court, notably the one attempting to limit birthright citizenship.
“Abolishing birthright citizenship will cause chaos across Connecticut and the United States, with babies born here lacking legal status anywhere, imperiling their future careers, education, health care, and more in the only country they will have known,” Tong said. “My parents and grandparents ran for their lives, they fled war and hunger and ultimately made it to Connecticut with nothing.”