Yes, they do sound somewhat strange or even unreasonable or unjustified, especially when, contrary to common understanding and the legal precedent that acceptance of a pardon is itself admission of guilt, these pardons come with a statement that their issuance is not an acknowledgment of any wrongdoing, nor should their acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt. I, too, have similar mixed feelings about a president, even Biden with whom I mostly agree, issuing such pardons. But I think I at least understand the predicament in which the retribution-touting incoming president had put him.

As I mentioned in a previous post, most readers, from both sides of the spectrum, are likely to agree that the pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago, million dollar donations to the inaugural fund, and the attendance of the inauguration by tech CEOs, are unlikely to be signs of sudden changes of heart, but rather an attempt to protect themselves and their companies from the promised retaliations by the incoming administration, for past disagreements of critiques. While those CEOs had the means and ability to donate or promise things to protect themselves against the wrath of an incoming president who does not speak any language other than flattery and transactions, most of the recipients of these preemptive pardons are very likely to not have the same means or positions, to engage in a transaction with the incoming president, to give or promise him something in return for being saved of his retribution. So, for Biden, the choice was really between a series of untasteful preemptive pardons, or a series of baseless investigations and potential indictments brought in by the incoming president’s crony Attorney General, who, in unquestioned loyalty and obedience to her master, flat out lied during her confirmation hearing that she had never heard the audio of the incoming president asking Georgia’s Secretary of State to find him 11, 780 votes after his loss in the presidential elections in 2020, that she was not aware that the incoming FBI director had an enemies list, not hidden somewhere in a safe or something, but published as an Appendix to one of his books.

If you believe the use of the verb “lied” above is not justified and itself is a baseless accusation, while I agree that it is just a strong guess and not based on evidence, consider the alternative that a former Attorney General of the State of Florida to be so ignorant, especially in matters so closely related to the practice of law, that she never bothered to spend a few seconds to listen to something that probably every other person in the United States has heard of, will make the outlook of having such an ignorant person as the top law-enforcement official of the Unite States look even more disturbing. In either case, a loyal perjurer or an ignorant and incompetent lawyer, it is very unlikely for the incoming Attorney General to exhibit any resistance when the incoming president attempts to make good on his promise of retribution against those who “crossed” him, by publicly disagreeing with him or discussing his illegal requests during the time they served in his former administration, or attempting, as part of their oversight duties, to hold him accountable for inciting an insurrection.

You may argue that the events of January 6th, 2021 did not amount to an insurrection, or that whoever carried out those violent attacks on police officers trying to protect the capitol or forcefully entered the building and caused the former vice president and members of congress to flee for their lives, did all that on their own, without any request or direction or encouragement by the incoming president. But I doubt anybody could, in good conscience, deny that those things happened, that they were wrong, and that they deserved an investigation.

Considering all the above, I think I understand and agree with Biden’s decision. If you don’t, just give this hypothesis a few seconds to sink in: how would you feel if you were the target of similar attacks and promises of retribution by the incoming president, and were constantly receiving death threats from some of his extreme supporters. Would you have sufficient confidence that all those attacks were just campaign ramblings and that he would never follow through? or that even if he does, his Attorney General would stand up to him and would not follow his orders? or that the incoming FBI Director, who has literally written a children’s book in which he has likened the incoming president to a king and himself to the wizard protecting him, will not start baseless investigations against you? I seriously doubt.