Ben Wallace-Wells

I think it's inappropriate to prosecute them, and I'm going to safeguard them.

But the bigger question there is, well, are we now going to have every administration end with pardons for ideological allies, including members of the president's administration?

If we think about this in a broader sense, we can see that presidents are certainly part of the problem, but they're not the entire problem.

Presidents reflect the partisanship that permeates our society, and people want their president to do things that reflect their partisan goals.

And if you are a MAGA Republican, you think it's absolutely wonderful that January Sixers were freed because, as Trump says, they're patriots.

And Trump knows that.

And so he wants to ingratiate his base.

And so it's not merely that we have presidents that are drunk on unilateralism.

We have parties that want their presidents to utilize their power in maximal ways in order to advance their party's interests.