Trump says he will ask kneeling athletes to recommend people for him to pardon

[sabra]

Source: The Hill

Trump says he will ask kneeling athletes to recommend people for him to pardon 'because that's what they're protesting'

President Trump said Friday that he would ask athletes who kneel during the national anthem to recommend people for him to pardon.

Trump has been highly critical of athletes kneeling during the anthem, calling it disrespectful to the country. Most recently, he disinvited Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles to the White House over their differing stances on the protests.

“They’re not proud enough to stand for our national anthem, I don’t like that,” Trump said to reporters outside the White House on Friday, before criticizing the protests as “talk, talk, talk.”

Instead, he said, he plans to ask kneeling athletes to recommend “friends of theirs or people that they know about” who they think should be pardoned.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/391331-trump-says-he-will-ask-kneeling-athletes-to-recommend-people-for-him

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[PubliusEnigma]

1. You want to a pardon? How much! How much!!

[Dave Starsky]

2. W...T...F?

He's crazy.

[chelsea0011]

70. That, he is.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. He is signaling to his co-conspirators that he will pardon anyone with a heartbeat

This is crime in plain sight

[demmiblue]

4. This pretty much sums it up:

Daniel Dale ✔ @ddale8

The pardon stuff is catnip for Trump: people have to beg him for mercy and thank him, he can do things for celebrities and get headlines with little effort, he can wield them strategically against Black protesters, he can say he did something for Black people that Obama didn't.

9:45 AM - Jun 8, 2018

Link to tweet

[yurbud]

53. and it reinforces the idea that blacks are criminals for his base

[SergeStorms]

66. Yet a vast majority....

of the people he's already pardoned are white. White and affluent. Come to think of it, has Trump pardoned anyone who isn't white to this point?

[Chrysanthemum]

68. I thought he pardoned...

Jack Johnson, no?

[SergeStorms]

69. Right you are.

I found a list of everyone he's pardoned, so far; Sholom Rubashkin, Joe Arpaio, Kristian Saucier, Scooter Libby, Jack Johnson, Dinesh D'Sousa, Alice Johnson. So there are several people of color he's pardoned, which really surprised me. The people he's been talking about pardoning, like Martha Stewart, are the ones that push me over the edge.

[yurbud]

71. good point

[neeksgeek]

5. Can someone refuse a pardon, and choose to finish their sentence?

Just curious.

[unblock]

11. yes. burdick v. united states

president wilson tried to force a pardon on george burdick in order to compel testimony (the pardon would have bypassed his fifth amendment protections against self-incrimination.)

burdick refused the pardon, and the supreme court agreed that couldn't be forced on someone.

[neeksgeek]

61. Thanks! nt

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

6. Can't pardon the never convicted.

Tattooed cops seem to be the biggest offenders these days.

[unblock]

15. the president can pardon anyone at any point after the alleged crime has been committed

it usually happens will after a conviction (and after all appeals have been exhausted), but that's not a requirement and sometimes it happens, particularly for broad amnesties, e.g., for draft dodgers.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

19. I stand corrected.

F the pardons for killer cops, lets just make a law exempting them, and be truthful w the public.
DEESCALATION saves lives.

[unblock]

20. why limit it to the police?

you know he wants to just declare open season on people of color....

i mean, america is greater if someone can just shoot a black kid instead of having to literally take a single step backwards, right?

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

29. That's right.

I believe if they could they'd sell hunting licenses for Liberals and minorities. If they could. And they'd each get their limit.

[yurbud]

7. How will pardoning help innocent people killed by cops?

[DownriverDem]

12. It's about

getting the black vote.

[unblock]

25. no, it's not.

it's about keeping the vote of those white republicans who don't want to be called racist.

they *are* racist, but they want to have some way to defend themselves against the accusation.

there are far more votes at risk in this category than there are black people who might go over to the dark side.

[DownriverDem]

8. We all know what this is about

trump is trying to gain the black vote. How insulting. I bet he will float Kwame Kilpatrick's name (former mayor of Detroit in prison) next. I just saw where trump is considering pardoning 3,00 folks.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/trump-says-considering-3000-pardons-including-boxer-muhammad-ali/

[yurbud]

13. He can only go so far for black votes without losing racists in his base

[yurbud]

9. this is brilliantly evil: it reframes kneeling from being about innocents killed

to kneeling for those legally imprisoned. I wonder how long it will be before Fox News picks this up.

This is probably the most effective smear of BLM since the "Blue Lives Matter" bit, which implied BLM was protesting to protect cop killers.

[BigmanPigman]

43. Great summary!

[Locrian]

57. that's what I thought - he's trying to change the naritive n/t

[yurbud]

58. and then if someone says, "We don't want anyone pardoned..."

It would look they were complaining just to complain.

[MariaCSR]

64. Exactly.

That's why I said dont call Trump dumb, because dumb hes not...hes evil. You have to be smart to be that evil.

[yurbud]

65. There's a chance someone pitched this idea to him, or he simply thinks that's what BLM

wants because he watches Fox News.

[SCVDem]

10. Unless dump can raise the dead,

he can continue fucking himself!

Clueless piece of shit!

[rickford66]

40. This

[YOHABLO]

14. I guess that's Trump being sarcastic.

[underpants]

16. Well, many of them are black so between them they probably know every in jail

or everyone who's been convicted of a crime.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

55. My guess too. NT

[Marcuse]

17. He wants to fake pardon Ali while calling the NFL protesters SOBs?

We can’t wait for Mueller. The Allies should expose him as a risk to their national security.

[tanyev]

18. So he wants to see exceptionally skilled and well-paid black men kneeling

in order to request a boon from their liege.

[Kber]

59. That is stomach churning imagery.

[Perseus]

21. The man-child has a new toy

"The Pardon Stick"...and it is his favourite toy, it makes him feel....well, almost god.

I guess it is the only way he can get people to say 'thank you' to him, make him feel important.

[unblock]

22. once again, donnie shows himself to be a toddler who discovered a new toy.

[thbobby]

23. If athlete kneels he/she can recommend pardon

Well damned, every athlete should kneel. How can NFL be against athletes advocating for pardons? And at the president's suggestion.

This pardon party is just cover for coming obstruction of justice. trump will use and damage anyone or any worthy cause to save himself.

[Calista241]

24. To us, this sounds idiotic. To regular people however, this might have more legs.

[R Merm]

26. But, can be bring back anyone killed by police. eom

[Vinca]

27. The people they're kneeling for are dead.

It's about cops shooting unarmed black men. You can't pardon dead.

[Botany]

28. Welcome to the world of a reality TV show Presidency

this is insane

[Javaman]

30. this is the first thing I thought of...

[snowybirdie]

31. Unfortunately

a person won't help those killed because they are black.

[duforsure]

32. Pandering for votes

From the black voters. Never trust this guy, ever , his intentions are never good.

[CanonRay]

33. That's not what their protesting

he has, as usual, no understanding at all of the problem.

[beachbum bob]

34. You can't pardon a dead black man criminally shot to death by cops...trump still

doesn't get it

[rickford66]

41. This

[donkeypoofed]

35. He doesn't even TRY to understand!

Hasn't he heard during his copious hours of tv news watching, that they're protesting cops shooting innocent black people? Geez!

[Sneederbunk]

36. First recommendation: all the Canadian hockey players who burnt the White House.

[JohnnyRingo]

37. Can he pardon someone who was already executed on the street?

Of course not. Further evidence that Trump has no clue why the players were protesting.

[rickford66]

42. This

[Va Lefty]

38. "Step right up! Step right up! Kiss my ring and get a pardon!"

[RandomAccess]

39. First, now they should ALL kneel every game so they're

"eligible" to recommend people for parole.

Then they should get all the names of the no doubt thousands of guilty people who were given racist-based longer sentences than their white counterparts and submit those.

[Freethinker65]

44. How can Trump pardon victims of racial profiling and violence???

[Initech]

45. See this? This is what too much Fox News does to your brain, kids!

[marble falls]

47. When we got buzzed and saw this ad in the old days, we headed over to Denny's for a grand slam.

[Initech]

49. I would do the same!

[marble falls]

60. Its their fault, first they made pot look like a lot of fun (it was: only more so)...

in all the grug education films. Everybody who smoked laughed and had fun. The only people who seemed screwed up to me where the parents, teachers, cops. I wanted a drug that made things laughable.

And then they give me a close up of eggs and bacon at 11:00PM. "Its 11:00PM. Do you know where your children are?" Yep. At Denny's.

If you ask me, pot is the gateway drug for Denny's.

[marble falls]

46. The one name nowhere on any of their lists? Donald J. Trump Sr.

[hlthe2b]

48. He first said they should recommend "friends of theirs" before adding "or people they know of"

As though every predominently black NFL player MUST have friends in jail.

Surely, I'm not the only the only one annoyed by that...

[jb5150]

50. Maybe they should put him to the test ...

have him pardon Assata Shakur, what would his base (white racist assholes) think of that?

[ret5hd]

51. Biggus Dickus!!!

&t=5s

[jmowreader]

52. Fuck you and the horse you rode on, you racist POS

The inference is very clear: every kneeling athlete associates with criminals.

Tell me: if what Robert Mueller is doing is a witch hunt, can we burn him at the stake when he’s finally convicted? Because that’s what you do with witches.

[muriel_volestrangler]

54. Trump discovers "The President's Evil", announces his Royal Touch can cure it

"As you know, I'm a great fan of history. The biggest. Nobody knows the histories better than me. So I thought 'if England had the King's Evil, that must mean we have The President's Evil'. Because the Constitution says that all the English laws had 'king' crossed out and replaced with 'president' to make ours. Many people don't know that. Great document. The best.

And I can also cure it by touch. Stands to reason. No president before me has offered to do this for his people. Sad. So I invite anyone who thinks they're suffering from this to come and see me. I'm available in the Presidential Bedroom, morning and evening. Don't worry, there's plenty of room, Melanie's never there. I'm such a gentleman, I'll let young women, between 14 and 28, apply first. In fact, you might not know you've got it, so any lady in that age group better come just in case."

The Royal Touch: A Look at Healing in Times Past

[VWolf]

56. Wait .... NOT THE ONION??????

[bsiebs]

62. In addition to pardon power being unable to bring back the dead...

.. I see some evil intentions with this offer. Imagine what trump and the entire right wing machinery will do with the pardon "requests" once they have received them... pick through them, run them through their research networks (in addition to the police support) and then blast it across the airwaves … "Look at these folks that these BLM and Black athletes are complaining should be released..." Then show all the cherry picked information showing why they were justifiably put in jail/prison. Sure, he will release some, he likes doing it.. but the real win for them will be to command the narrative that the whole "take a knee" and BLM efforts are a scam not to be taken seriously. I don't trust these people for one nanosecond.

[RobinA]

63. Sheesh...

This is gibberish even for him!

[pecosbob]

67. Wait a minute...

wasn't he calling for them to be fired just weeks ago?