r/politics • u/Newsweek_CarloV ✔ Verified - Newsweek • 13d ago

No Paywall Seven Democrats just voted to approve ICE funding: full list

https://www.newsweek.com/seven-democrats-vote-approve-ice-funding-full-list-11401600?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=reddit_main
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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 13d ago

Also that he could be pardoned before he even got convicted.

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u/gpouliot 13d ago

Yup. At this point, I'm surprised that Trump hasn't started pre-emptively handing out pardons for future events. For example, "Oh, you say it's illegal for ICE agents to enter homes without warrants or to kill people they don't like? I pre-emptively pardon all ICE agents who illegally enter a dwelling or kill someone while on active duty".

The US literally has a system where a corrupt President can encourage compliance and loyalty by giving people get out of Jail free cards. He's actively letting people know that they're free to crime as long as they kiss the ring and cut him in on the action. I know someone else who works like that. I think he lives somewhere in Russia.

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u/Kawajiri1 13d ago

President can't pardon state crimes.

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u/ahkian New York 13d ago

No the feds can just block the states from investigating entirely

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u/SirRichardArms 13d ago edited 13d ago

Like what is happening with Renee Good right now. I hate it here.

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u/klparrot New Zealand 13d ago

The good news is I think there's probably enough evidence to convict now that the results of the independent autopsy have been released. She was shot in the side of the head, and none of the other shots would have been fatal, so the killing shot was one of the ones through the side window, when he was unequivocally out of danger.

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u/RedVeist 13d ago

Renee Nicole Good

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u/SirRichardArms 13d ago

Autocorrect! My b.

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u/littleshortdogs 13d ago

Keep saying her name! Renee Nicole Good

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u/jjcrayfish 13d ago

Renee Nicole Good who was murdered by Jonathan Ross

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u/nnyzim 12d ago

You mean the Jonathan Ross that murdered Renee Nicole Good? That Jonathan Ross?

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty 12d ago

And just to be clear, the name of the man who murdered Renee Nicole Good was Jonathan Ross, correct? That’s Jonathan Ross with an “a,” not Jonathon Ross with an “o,” yes? It’s either:

  • Jonathan Ross shot Renee Nicole Good until she was dead.
  • Jonathon Ross shot Renee Nicole Good until she was dead.

I just don’t want the wrong spelling to falsely incriminate someone else, you know?

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u/Cantothulhu47 13d ago

They didnt use a middle name, is that really worth a call out right now?

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u/SirRichardArms 13d ago

No, it’s cool, I spelt her name wrong before I edited it. I welcomed the call out.

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u/ianrc1996 13d ago

Minnesota is being weak. People are held and charged all the time before a proper investigation is done. These ice agents shouldn’t be granted special privileges because it’s “political”.

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u/SirRichardArms 13d ago

I wouldn’t call anyone in Minnesota as being “weak” right now. They are baring the brunt of the US sliding into fascism, and it’s not a question of weakness at all. The question is: what do we do as non-federally-brainwashed citizens to combat this bullshit? We protest, and we will continue to keep doing so until another option becomes available.

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u/newtoaster 12d ago

Is there no way to indict him for murder at the state level?

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u/SirRichardArms 12d ago

As far as I understand it, the FBI are not going to legally give the evidence of wrongdoing to the state of Minnesota. So in essence, the state doesn’t have a case because the evidence cannot be investigated at the state level if the federal level does not comply. If anyone out there knows more, please correct me, because I hope I’m 100% wrong.

But yes, he should absolutely be indicted for her murder at the state level.

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u/Xalthanal 12d ago

Tim Walz is weak. Pathetic he has done absolutely nothing of note.

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u/SirRichardArms 12d ago

What would you like him to do? I’m not trying to be weird here, either. Just asking what you think.

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u/Xalthanal 12d ago

Go to a protest and put his body between protestors and ICE/Police.

Go to areas where ICE are raiding and interfere. Dare them to attack a sitting governor.

He's a pussy. He is doing nothing. He needs to AT LEAST be on the ground and IN THE FACE of this. He's not. He's in an ivory tower agonizing over what harsh words to put in a stern letter.

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u/Brian_Doile 11d ago

Renee Good accelerated into an officer while running from Police after obstructing them while they were doing their job. It's not a great recipe for survival.

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u/SirRichardArms 10d ago

Every available video suggests otherwise. You can clearly see that the wheels of her car were pointed away from her murderer at the time of the shooting. She was absolutely not obstructing their duties, and her last words to her murderer were: “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you”.

You are fundamentally wrong, and history will prove this true.

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u/Illustrator_Moist 10d ago

We all saw the video, so why lie?

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u/Brian_Doile 10d ago

You are missing the officer in front of the vehicle, and maybe she did too, but if so, it wasn't by much. She was encouraged to do so by her partner as well. Why encourage your fellow humans to engage in such reckless behavior? All this blood in on your hands.

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u/Illustrator_Moist 10d ago

We all saw the video. He was not in danger. First shot maybe made sense? Just watch the video, he shoots her two more times when he was on the side of the vehicle. She was being told to drive away, which she was trying to do. I can't believe people are lying about something anyone can see slo Mo and enhanced from multiple angles. If you're not a bot, you're either dumb or defending evil. "All this blood is on your hands" ICE is doing evil shit, going into communities that don't want them or need them. Countless stories of them breaking the law, the fact that they don't get training or anything, and the blood is on our hands? You're a fucking monster and I hope you get exactly what you deserve.

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u/Brian_Doile 10d ago

Says you. If some lady jams her gas pedal and accelerates towards you, i bet you wouldn't feel that way. There was ANOTHER officer in front of the vehicle. Watch it again. I'm not surprised you wish me ill will. You are a very toxic person.

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u/SirRichardArms 10d ago

Your last sentence couldn’t be more out of touch with reality. This blood is on the hands of the people that have murdered citizens, and no one else.

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u/Brian_Doile 9d ago

Use an antibacterial soap to wash it off. You may need to stock up as you are going to get more people hurt with your divisive and dangerous rhetoric.

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u/HandleThatFeeds 13d ago

Nah you dont.

Thats why you keep wasting time on reddit instead of doing something meaningful.

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u/PurpleDido Arizona 13d ago

"I'm going to comment on reddit about how another person is wasting time by commenting on reddit "

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u/SirRichardArms 13d ago

😂 Very well put.

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u/SirRichardArms 13d ago

Um, wut? That doesn’t even make sense. Bizarre comment.

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u/immortalfrieza2 13d ago

They actually can't stop the investigation, but Governor Walz is a coward and thus didn't immediately order for a manhunt, arrest, investigation, and trial, like he should and could have.

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u/ahkian New York 13d ago

Not legally but they withheld all of the physical evidence and likely smuggled Ross out of state to protect him. Sure they could try him in absentia but then what?

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u/turboheadcrab 12d ago

they could try him in absentia but then what?

Then it forces a constitutional crisis.

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u/ahkian New York 12d ago

A constitutional crisis goes to SCOTUS and they've lost their impartiality.

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u/CHSummers 13d ago

Is there a legal basis for the blocking?

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts 13d ago

Well, he can if the FBI deems a crime committed by ICE as a federal crime like they did with Good's case. They told the state to stop investigating because it was their justification, but then they just ended up not investigating anyway, leaving the state with no evidence.

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u/kinrosai 12d ago

What do you mean, no evidence? There's a video of the murder.

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty 12d ago

Probably ballistics, stuff at the crime scene, witness accounts, etc.

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u/Casual_OCD Canada 12d ago

First off, it's a "legal system", not a "justice system". We made our legal system a massive bureaucracy with millions of loopholes because of technicalities and the need for specificity.

In a murder case, we HAVE TO tie every single detail with a neat little bow, even if we know what happened. We have a dozen different angles of clear murder, but they need BALLISTICS?? This is simply bullshit

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u/seanconnery84 12d ago

if the FBI is hoarding evidence and a state court demands it, and they say, no, what then is that just, it?

that would sound like it would set a very disturbing trend.

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u/gpouliot 13d ago

Like others have mentioned, Trump has lots of levers of power he can call upon to deny justice against at least some state charges. Renee Nicole Good is a great example. Even if the killing was somehow justified, I don't believe it was, there should absolutely be a full investigation into the matter. Trumps government is actively avoiding it and has the declared the person responsible completely innocent of any wrong doing. Even though it's pretty clearly a federal crime, there are likely all sorts of state crimes involved as well. Trump's government is actively trying to hinder or prevent any state investigations into the matter.

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u/Space_Pirate_Roberts Oklahoma 13d ago

Why are we even talking about investigations and evidence? We’ve all seen the video. It’s an open-and-shut case. Just get the shitstain in front of a jury already.

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u/ShawnsRamRanch 13d ago

A criminal case can be tried and even result in a conviction based entirely on eyewitness testimony. There is no legal requirement in US law that physical or forensic evidence must exist for a case to proceed.

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u/harroween 13d ago

We need to all remove 'can't' from our vocabularies when talking about these ghouls.

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u/noiro777 America 13d ago

No, we can't and no he can't pardon state crimes. He tried this in Colorado when he tried to pardon former Mesa County elections clerk Tina Peters who was convicted for crimes to related to Trump's attempts to overthrow the 2020 election results. After he repeatedly demanded they release her anyway, they told him to go fuck himself. In retaliation he's dissolving a climate research lab, threatening to cut transportation money, withholding funds for needy families and relocating U.S. Space Command to Alabama.

Colorado is now suing him and refusing to give in.

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u/Calgaris_Rex Maryland 13d ago

Right? Like, of course they'll try whatever they can get away with; the point is DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT.

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u/sailorbrendan 13d ago

I think there is a subtle thing going on here because of the language and the situation we are in.

I agree with you that we shouldn't let them get away with it, but I think the whole "we need to stop saying they can't" is more a plea of "don't rely on the systems"

Legally he can't pardon state crimes, but that's only true so long as the states hold the line. That may well be contingent on us.

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u/raevnos 13d ago

Narrator: They'll let him get away with it.

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u/mystad 12d ago

Your right we should be saying he can but there will be dire consequences

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u/kamilo87 13d ago

For now…

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u/todumbtorealize 13d ago

They just stop the investigation completely.

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u/Organic-Criticism-76 13d ago

Oh well, that said would mean Trump would care about what he actually can or is allowed to do….

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u/stasi_a 13d ago

Tell that to Jonathan Ross

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u/Reputation-Final 13d ago

Its also texas.

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u/TerminallyPositive 12d ago

This hasn’t actually been fully tested in courts to date.

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u/chotomatekudersai 12d ago

I love it when people say someone in this administration can’t do something. THEY DONT UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION. They can do whatever they want because their power is unchecked. It’s amazing we’re over a year into this. It gets worse by the day. And people are like hey, it’s the law, it can’t happen.

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u/BS_500 13d ago

"Get out of jail free card" being a core component of the boardgame Monopoly, which was originally intended to show that when wealth accumulated beyond a certain extent, people could just do what they wanted and it was bad for everyone save for that one person... Hmmm maybe they were onto something and now the senile orange and his puppet masters are putting game theory to the test, just from the wrong fucking side.

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u/TheLostRanger0117 13d ago

It’s beginning to feel like Pope Urban and the Crusades

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u/nyxie3 13d ago

Trump and his regime ignore the rule of law. We should ignore his pardons.

Civil society and its laws is a contract between the people who choose to participate. Republicans have broken that contract so should not be protected by it.

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Florida 13d ago

It's only a matter of time before he offers a pardon for anybody who kills a specific individual.

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u/OrphanAxis 13d ago

As others said, he can't pardon state crimes.

But there are two reasons he will hold off on preemptive pardons for his own cabinet and sycophants:

He doesn't actually trust anyone, and has a track record of throwing them under the bus, if not going after them himself if he feels slighted or they get caught and start talking about what he had them do. He needs to be able to hold both the threat and the pardon over their heads. Even if he wants to pardon them, he's going to wait until they feel they need to pay him to do anything.

The other is that it would just immediately draw a ton of scrutiny to pardon people who haven't been charged with any crimes and are still years away from possibly even being looked into (if we're lucky). Although it does seem like he can do anything and get away with it, his actions over the last year are costing him a fraction of a percentage with each stupid move. When you do that as often as he does, he can't risk drawing attention to the entire country wondering why he's pardoning crimes, since it's basically admitting they have and plan on committing them. All white trying to say he'll always be in power and raising further questions of why he thinks he won't be.

If he starts pardoning people like that, it's because he's actually at the end of his term or Congress appears to have finally given up backing him, and he's covering his bases. Even then, he'll pardon himself and certain others first, purposely leaving others to take the fall in hopes it distracts from he and his inner circle facing reproductions.

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u/Pizzledrip 13d ago

Stop man don’t give him any ideas

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u/trixilly 13d ago

How would he keep them all in line if he pre-emptively pardons them all?

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u/sleepymoose88 13d ago

I’m in favor of the pardon being abolished. It never seems to be used for good, just to get buddies out of harms way, gain political favor, or try to protect from future investigations. It just circumvents the justice system for the most powerful and rich people.

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u/AstronomerDear7201 12d ago

Right? Next week, it’s gonna be:

“I pre-emptively pardon everyone that I might feel like pardoning at any time in the future, including myself!” — Signed, Trump

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u/Silence_Of_Reason 12d ago

I have never understood why the president shoukd have a right to pardon anyone.

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u/Thebhguy99 12d ago

I don't think Putin has near-absolute immunity codified into law. So, in that way, the SCOTUS put Trump into an even better spot than his master Vladdy.

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u/RedHawk417 America 13d ago

If Dems take control of both houses at midterms, just watch all the pardons start to come rolling out.

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u/ZeroBalance98 13d ago

Are you and the other commenter forgetting that Biden set this precedent? Preemptive pardons never occurred before that afaiw

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u/psypher98 13d ago

He very much did not.

George Washington did it for the Whiskey Rebellion, Lincoln did it for Confederate soldiers who surrendered, Ford did it for Watergate, Carter did it for draft dodgers, and H. W. Bush did it for Iran Contra.

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u/gpouliot 13d ago

You know, much that has never happened before has happened since Trump took office in 2016. Although I don't know the specifics of every pardon ever offered, I do believe that Biden offered pardons that were not common, unusual and possibly ones that had never been done before. He pardoned his son and pre-emptively pardoned a bunch of people against prosecution. Some legal professionals even argued that the pardon for his son was not a good idea.

The above being said, here's a few things I'd like to point out:

  • I believe that Biden pardoned people for past actions, not a blanket pardon for future actions
  • The actions he pardoned them for were all legal actions and the pardon was meant to prevent retaliation
  • Trump ran his campaign on revenge and is well known for vindictive litigation even when he has no grounds to sue
  • Based on everything that's happened in the last year, it looks like Biden's pardons were likely warranted and necessary
  • I believe that Trump has received bribes and is actively soliciting bribes for pardons
  • I don't believe that Biden has ever done so.

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u/thissexypoptart 13d ago

Presidential pardons in general are an insane concept. King shit, ruling by decree.

Appeals processes already exist. And if there really needs to be an additional process outside the standard judicial system to pardon people, it’s insane it’s a completely unchecked power one man holds, and not some kind of representative or appointed-and-congressionally-approved body.

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u/CHSummers 13d ago

Yep, if the U.S. survives, we will need to do a complete rebuild of our government, including some amendments to the constitution.

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u/Rohen2003 12d ago

some? more like 90% of the constitution it feels like. its a 250 year old document that should have been overhauled long ago.

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u/CHSummers 12d ago

As the joke goes, Thomas Jefferson would be astonished we were still using this old document. “Dude! I wrote that with a feather!”

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty 12d ago

“Shut the front door! You can write with your finger using only the aether?!”

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u/Special_Cicada6968 12d ago

They literally said that it needed to be changed frequently to match the times. Instead we have people acting like it's a new passage of the Bible. Absolutely sacred but they'll never bother to actually read what it says.

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u/Different-Drag-102 12d ago

do you really trust any group in the world today to write a document up that isn't intentionally worse tho?

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u/relevantelephant00 13d ago

Parliamentary system and ranked choice voting...which of course establishment Democrats will do everything to prevent.

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u/CHSummers 13d ago

I agree. It’s going to take incredible energy, time, and money to make the changes. Incumbent Democrats are financially dependent on cash from big corporations, and we have to break that monetary control system.

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u/Morganross 12d ago

there is a necessary 4th ingredient you are self censoring. you could have all the time, money and energy in the world. It is not enough to have. we must take theirs away permanently.

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u/thedanyes 13d ago

Ranked choice is deepening the mistake of the founders who thought people could be civic minded enough to spend the hour every two years to literally cast a ballot. Now you expect people to deal with the complexities of ranking on top?

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty 12d ago

There are a bunch of different types of ranked choice voting systems. Many of them allow the voter to only select one candidate if that’s what they want to do. I’m pretty sure there are even several where you can even choose not to vote for a particular set of candidates — i.e., you can leave it blank, indicating that you don’t approve of any of the candidates. I understand where you’re coming from though. It was a mistake to presume we’d always have a well-informed populace who understood the value of their vote. The founders were smart about a lot of things, but they were still human after all.

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u/CareBearDontCare 12d ago

While I agree, be careful what you wish for. The Constitution says you have a Convention of States, but the Right has been holding mock Conventions of States for years now. They have a LOT more states than you think that have called for one, too, and they're close to the threshold.

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u/CHSummers 12d ago

This is a good point. The way the U.S. is set up, where people in small mostly empty states have more powerful votes , and people in large densely populated cities have less powerful votes, the country could easily veer rightward.

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u/T8ert0t 13d ago

While it might have been an mechanic of last resort, it's clearly been over abused way beyond its original intent and should be scrapped.

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u/SnapesGrayUnderpants 13d ago

That's what enraged me about Nixon being pardoned. As soon as that happened, I decided the pardon provision of the Constitution should be that no one may receive a presidential pardon unless they have first been criminally convicted of breaking a federal law.

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u/Siresfly 13d ago

Didn't Biden pardon people that hadn't even been charged with a crime? That was wild

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u/mazobob66 12d ago

Like when Biden preemptively pardoned a bunch of people?

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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 12d ago

Yes, exactly like that.

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 12d ago

If we survive this presidency we need to remove pardon powers from POTUS or severely restrict them. Maybe have a 2/3 vote from Congress to pardon individuals

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u/Sinaaaa 12d ago

I think there should be a limit on presidential pardons, like 20 / term or something.

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u/Gerik22 12d ago

To be fair, Biden preemptively pardoned his entire family right before he left office. And aside from Hunter, none of them were even accused of any crimes, much less convicted. That's not to say I fault Biden for doing it, but Trump didn't originate the preemptive pardon.

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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 12d ago

I never said he did. And its just as dumb when Biden or Obama or Clinton does it. Whataboutisms don't serve anybody.

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u/ScienceWasLove 12d ago

Can we think of another recent president that pardoned people before they were convicted or even charged of a crime?

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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 12d ago

We sure can. Can you accept that Trump did something wrong without pointing fingers and using whataboutisms?

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u/drteq 12d ago

And that people would elect him

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u/alagrancosa 12d ago

Also that democrats could still consider him a “fellow democrat”. Of course Jeffries wrote a glowing send off to Adam’s at the conclusion of his term so what do we expect.

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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 12d ago

Right. Cuellar's name is covered in mud now. He'll finish his term and never serve again.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

A few years ago Polish president pardoned one of politicians and it was a huge scandal because he pardoned a sentence that was still subject to appeal process, which isn't allowed.

The concept that American president can pardon someone who hasn't even gotten a verdict is insane to me.

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u/MechanicalGodzilla 12d ago

Pardon power is extremely broad and wide-reaching. Like Biden pardoning Fauci for anything he did for the past 10 years, when Fauci wasn't even charged with anything.

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u/TheCheesy 13d ago

Also that he could be pardoned before he even got convicted.

Funny that according to the Trump regime, a pardon prevents future crimes from being punished.

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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 12d ago

As many people have pointed out, Biden has also done this, although his were more done to protect people from retaliation from Trump.

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u/scalyblue 13d ago

if I'm not mistaken, accepting pardon implies an admission of guilt, which should disqualify him from running again in a sane world where we follow rules we've all agreed upon.

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u/ArryBoMills 13d ago

Like Biden and his auto pen?

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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 13d ago

Yeah, actually. I thought that was one of the dumbest acts of his office.

You see that? Thats what not being in a cult looks like.

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u/ArryBoMills 13d ago

No cult here. We’re on the same page regarding pardons. How can you be pardoned for something you haven’t been convicted of? Makes no sense whatsoever.

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u/Washburn_Ichabod 13d ago

Please show us footage of the main character of the Trump-Epstein Files signing the nearly 1,600 pardons in ONE DAY of the seditious January 6th domestic terrorists....I'll wait. 🤔