Speaker 1: Yesterday, Catholics throughout the United States attended Mass for the
Speaker 1: Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Speaker 1: This is an important feast day for Catholics in the
Speaker 1: United States. The Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of
Speaker 1: the Immaculate Conception is actually the patron Saint of the
Speaker 1: United States of America. A lot of different countries, regions, cities,
Speaker 1: et cetera, have some saint designated as their patron saint,
Speaker 1: and the Blessed the Blessed Virgin Mary under that title
Speaker 1: is the patron Saint of the United States. And there's one.
Speaker 1: And basically the thought of this is that Mary is
Speaker 1: a kind of was foreshadowed in the Old Testament by
Speaker 1: the Ark of the Covenant, that as the Ark of
Speaker 1: the Covenant was the dwelling place for God among the
Speaker 1: Jewish people, Mary became the dwelling place for her son Jesus,
Speaker 1: and Catholics think a corollary of that is that Mary
Speaker 1: was without sin, including from the first moment of her conception,
Speaker 1: that she was freed from original sin, the inherited sin
Speaker 1: of Adam and Eve that all of us receive. So
Speaker 1: that is what that feece celebrates anyway. So because it's
Speaker 1: kind of a significant feast day, kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: like Christmas is. Christmas is not on a Sunday, but
Speaker 1: it's during the week, and the church says, hey, this
Speaker 1: is important enough, you should go to church. So a
Speaker 1: bunch of us went to church, and most of us
Speaker 1: Catholics who are observant of these sorts of things, we
Speaker 1: all went to church yesterday. And there's one part of
Speaker 1: the Catholic Mass, the prayer of the faithful, where we
Speaker 1: ask God for particular things. We are praying sometimes it's
Speaker 1: called the intercessions, and we're you know, asking for different
Speaker 1: particular things. And in one of the intercessions, there was
Speaker 1: a prayer at my parish, and I suspect that this
Speaker 1: happened in parishes throughout the country. There was a prayer
Speaker 1: for clemency for all persons on death row. Now, I
Speaker 1: am amenable to the expression of the Church's teaching on
Speaker 1: the death penalty as formulated by, for example, John Paul
Speaker 1: the Second. I don't necessarily know that the death penalty
Speaker 1: is a particularly helpful criminal justice tool nowadays. I you know,
Speaker 1: obviously that's not a popular opinion among Conservatives, but neither
Speaker 1: here nor there. I thought it was an odd intercession,
Speaker 1: like particular on this day. Why where are we doing that?
Speaker 1: And I subsequently learned that the Pope specifically called on
Speaker 1: this for persons condemned to death in the United States.
Speaker 1: He asked during his Angelus, I guess there was a
Speaker 1: group of Catholics from the United States there. Often the
Speaker 1: Pope will make a mid day address to the crowds
Speaker 1: within Saint Peter's Square during this Catholic prayer called the Angelous,
Speaker 1: and he'll pray the Angelus prayer and then make a
Speaker 1: little speech, and pilgrims who are in Rome can then
Speaker 1: see the Pope and it's cool. He prayed for those
Speaker 1: condemned to death in the United States. And the bishops
Speaker 1: of America are appealing to President Biden to commute the
Speaker 1: death penalty sentence for forty people who are on death row.
Speaker 1: There are people within the federal prison system who have
Speaker 1: received a death sentence. Now, I obviously I am far
Speaker 1: more concerned about the abortion issue. We're talking a million
Speaker 1: people per year as opposed to a grand total of
Speaker 1: forty people in the entire federal prison system who are
Speaker 1: condemned to death. I'm not saying those cases aren't significant
Speaker 1: or important, but it's a million innocent human beings as
Speaker 1: opposed to forty condemned, forty convicted murderers. Presumably, Again, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I am supportive of the death penalty. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I focus my energies where I focus them. Nonetheless, I
Speaker 1: find it to be an interesting talking an interesting way
Speaker 1: to talk about Joe Biden, to talk about Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: and to talk about Catholicism among liberal Americans and the
Speaker 1: liberal kind of especially Irish Catholic tradition. Now, this little
Speaker 1: tradition that we've seen develop in America where Catholicism places
Speaker 1: essentially no public obligations on at least in the way
Speaker 1: that liberal Catholics see it. Catholicism places absolutely no obligations
Speaker 1: on the public life of liberal Catholics. That is basically
Speaker 1: how they view it. Catholicism is for liberal Catholics. And
Speaker 1: I'm including, by the way, in this certain Catholics who
Speaker 1: vote for Republicans, or certain Catholics who maybe are republic
Speaker 1: there's a total I'll throw in, for example, Chris Christy.
Speaker 1: There's this sense that Catholicism the practice of my Christian faith.
Speaker 1: And in this case, because I'm on the Catholic side
Speaker 1: of the street, I will talk about what's on my
Speaker 1: side of the street. Evangelical listeners may maybe you will
Speaker 1: find something analogous for your side of the street. Protestant
Speaker 1: listeners may find something analogous for your side of the street.
Speaker 1: Jewish listeners, you may find something analogous for your side
Speaker 1: of the street. That Catholicism basically became for upwardly mobile Americans,
Speaker 1: Boomer era Catholics, Catholics the age of Joe Biden, the
Speaker 1: age of people up to twenty years younger than him,
Speaker 1: this totally privatized thing where basically his commitment was, I
Speaker 1: want to live exactly the way that other successful American
Speaker 1: professionals in law, in medicine, in commerce. I want to
Speaker 1: live the way they live. And if Catholicism fits into that, great,
Speaker 1: those aspects of Catholicism that fit into that supertty duper.
Speaker 1: If it's the Catholic Church's commitment to helping the poor,
Speaker 1: sure great, I'll give money to you know, this charitable
Speaker 1: entity that is focused on helping the poor. This is
Speaker 1: not a knock, by the way, at Catholic charities. A
Speaker 1: lot of Catholic charities organizations around the country do fine work.
Speaker 1: Catholic Charities in the dioces of President does excellent work.
Speaker 1: I have nothing but wonderful things to say about them,
Speaker 1: but it's quite clear that they have a broader appeal
Speaker 1: than say, my organization does Right to Life of Central California.
Speaker 1: Why well, to say I support Right to Life of
Speaker 1: Central California means hey, I am allowing my Catholic faith
Speaker 1: to dictate to me that I must stay committed to
Speaker 1: a cause of justice for marginalized people in a fashion
Speaker 1: that is deeply unpopular or could be deeply unpopular with
Speaker 1: a large segment of my peer group, that could cause
Speaker 1: me to lose social status and social standings in the
Speaker 1: eyes of broader society. No one gets that flack when
Speaker 1: they donate to Catholic charities. And again, it's not throwing
Speaker 1: shade at Catholic charities. The work they do is wonderful
Speaker 1: and good and I encourage you. I encourage you. If
Speaker 1: you're listening and you want to help poor people, needy people,
Speaker 1: hungry people, people want clothes for their backs, I would
Speaker 1: encourage you to give to Catholic charities. They do wonderful,
Speaker 1: wonderful work here in Fresno, but it's undoubtedly the case
Speaker 1: that that's an easier give. And Joe Biden as I
Speaker 1: think typical of this posture of Catholicism where he refused
Speaker 1: he has basically refused to allow his Catholic faith to
Speaker 1: inform what he thinks, how he acts, how he does anything.
Speaker 1: With regards to his public life as an America as
Speaker 1: one of the most you know, one of the more
Speaker 1: prominent American politicians in the history of the twentieth to
Speaker 1: twenty first centuries, as someone who was a senator for
Speaker 1: thirty six years, vice president for eight years, and a
Speaker 1: one term president, I don't think his Catholicism has ever
Speaker 1: meaningfully impacted his work. He could have been a Presbyterian,
Speaker 1: he could have been a Lutheran, he could have been
Speaker 1: an atheist. And I don't think any of the choices
Speaker 1: he would have made for the political things he supports
Speaker 1: or opposes, I don't think any of those things would
Speaker 1: have changed. And I think the death penalty is a
Speaker 1: classic example of this. I have felt challenged about what
Speaker 1: would have been maybe my initial instincts on the death
Speaker 1: penalty would be by the teaching of say John Paul
Speaker 1: the Second, the teaching and example of John Paul the
Speaker 1: Second Benedict the sixteenth. I think my initial instinct would
Speaker 1: be yes, I think the death penalty is a legitimate tool.
Speaker 1: And the great caution that postwar Catholic leaders had towards
Speaker 1: the death penalty, I think was instructive. I think John Paul,
Speaker 1: coming from you know, an iron country, behind the iron curtain,
Speaker 1: and seeing the ways in which the death penalty was
Speaker 1: utilized in capricious fashion, in such a capricious fashion, He's
Speaker 1: got a perspective on the death penalty that maybe I
Speaker 1: don't in America, and the conditions under which it should
Speaker 1: be applied, which in John Paul the Seconds view were
Speaker 1: far more limited than maybe what I would have initially thought.
Speaker 1: And I have allowed my you know, as a Catholic,
Speaker 1: I have allowed what my preconceived political notions are about
Speaker 1: politics and in this case, criminal law, you know, law
Speaker 1: a question with which I'm professionally interested, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I went to law school, I practice as an attorney.
Speaker 1: I have thoughts about criminal law and criminal justice, and
Speaker 1: I've allowed my Catholic faith to help shape and inform
Speaker 1: what I think about the death penalty. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm I'd say I'm one hundred percent in
Speaker 1: everything I do trying to adhere to what the Church
Speaker 1: authentically teaches about the death penalty. I don't think the
Speaker 1: death penalty is an inherent an intrinsically immoral thing. I
Speaker 1: just think the circumstances under which it's used are could
Speaker 1: be fairly rare, and I don't know how helpful it
Speaker 1: is within the context of modern Western states like the
Speaker 1: United States of America. Now I have allowed myself to
Speaker 1: I try to form my beliefs, my conscience on the
Speaker 1: basis of what the Catholic Church teaches. Let's compare this
Speaker 1: to Joe Biden. Though Joe Biden is a Democrat. Democrats
Speaker 1: don't like the death penalty. They never have. It's been
Speaker 1: a pretty consistent aspect of Democratic Party policy for going
Speaker 1: back decades to not really support the death penalty. And
Speaker 1: among liberal Catholics that was always the thing they would say, well, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not really agreeing with the pope on abortion,
Speaker 1: but we agree with him on the death penalty, you know,
Speaker 1: as you know, as if that balances it out. You know,
Speaker 1: the death penalty again, the death penalty that we have
Speaker 1: forty total inmates condemned to execution within the federal prison system,
Speaker 1: probably the total number throughout the entire United States of America.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what the number is. It is it
Speaker 1: is dwarfed by the number of children aborted in one
Speaker 1: day in America, completely dwarfed. It's a drop as compared
Speaker 1: to a bucket. It's not even close. Now, it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that those individual lives aren't important, but let's get
Speaker 1: some perspective here. Furthermore, abortion being killing of an innocent
Speaker 1: is a different kind of thing from executing a convicted murderer,
Speaker 1: where executing convicted murderer is not, I think in Catholic
Speaker 1: teaching something that would be inherently wrong. It's just under
Speaker 1: what conditions can you do it? Is it a very
Speaker 1: limited set of circumstances when you can do it, or
Speaker 1: is it just anyone who's been convicted of murder. I
Speaker 1: think John Paul the second, again coming from the Communist experience,
Speaker 1: having grown up in a country that was conquered by
Speaker 1: the Nazis and then conquered by the Soviets, his perspective
Speaker 1: on the death penalty is that this is not something
Speaker 1: that's usually applied very fairly or evenly or justly. And
Speaker 1: that's I think that's a very legitimate perspective. But here's
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. Why did the American bishops even have to
Speaker 1: ask him to commute the sentences of everyone on death row?
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom did that for California inmates easy. Gavin Newsom
Speaker 1: just basically said, because this is part of the pardon
Speaker 1: power that the president has over people, you know, being
Speaker 1: accused or convicted of federal crimes. It's the same power
Speaker 1: that a governor of a state has for people accused
Speaker 1: or convicted for state crimes. Gavin Newsom has basically said,
Speaker 1: as long as I am governor, I am commuting the
Speaker 1: sentence of any person on California's death row so that
Speaker 1: they're not executed because I don't believe in the death penalty.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, who opposed the death penalty pretty much his
Speaker 1: whole public career, just has not done that for prisoners
Speaker 1: in the federal system, the one area where even it
Speaker 1: would be easy for him to have his Catholicism inform
Speaker 1: his public work, and he hasn't done it. When we return,
Speaker 1: he's pardoning Hunter, but not commuting the sentence of people
Speaker 1: on death row. Next on the John Girardi Show, talking
Speaker 1: about Joe Biden's Catholicism, Basically, the Pope has this appeal
Speaker 1: out that President Biden would commute the death sentences for
Speaker 1: the forty inmates on death row within the federal American
Speaker 1: within the American federal prison system, there are forty men
Speaker 1: who are I guess men, maybe some of our women,
Speaker 1: who are condemned to death, and Pope Francis has asked
Speaker 1: Joe Biden to commute their sentences. The fact that he
Speaker 1: even asked to ask him is I think such a
Speaker 1: damning testament to how anemic Joe Biden's Catholicism is. Here
Speaker 1: is something where you some kind of a Catholic commitment.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't say that the Catholic tradition is unifical
Speaker 1: about the death penalty being bad. I think modern Catholic
Speaker 1: teaching has resulted in more concern and a narrowing of
Speaker 1: the circumstances under which the death penalty can legitimately be
Speaker 1: applied to such an extent that the popes have basically
Speaker 1: just said, and especially after the experience of Soviet Communism
Speaker 1: when the death penalty was applieddly, liberally, and unjustly, where
Speaker 1: the popes have basically said, hey, we don't think the
Speaker 1: death penalty is a useful thing, and we're totally okay
Speaker 1: with Catholics, you know, agitating to abolish it. Basically, this
Speaker 1: would be a thing where Joe Biden could very easily
Speaker 1: allow Catholic teaching in some way, shape or form to
Speaker 1: impact or effect how he has governed, how he has
Speaker 1: lived out his public life. His life is a public official.
Speaker 1: It would be easy. The Democrats don't like the death penalty.
Speaker 1: He and he alone has the pardon power as the president.
Speaker 1: You have the power every single all these forty men
Speaker 1: who are on death row. With a snap of his fingers,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden could pardon that. He could let them walk
Speaker 1: out of jail tomorrow. But short of that, beyond, you know,
Speaker 1: short of a full pardon, the president has the power
Speaker 1: to commute a sentence. So if someone you know, this
Speaker 1: is part of the president's pardon power and the pardon power,
Speaker 1: give my little spiel on the pardon power. The pardon
Speaker 1: power of the president is something that we kind of
Speaker 1: inherited from the English unwritten Constitution and tradition that the
Speaker 1: monarch of Great Britain has the ability to pardon people
Speaker 1: for crimes. In fact, I actually read about Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: who very often she was getting requests to pardon basically
Speaker 1: men who found their wives in flagrante delicto with their
Speaker 1: lovers and who in a moment of fury wound up
Speaker 1: killing them and killing somebody killing their wives. And that
Speaker 1: was very often the kind of per person who was
Speaker 1: presented to Queen Victoria for a pardon, and Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: eventually was like, no, I'm not going to do these anymore.
Speaker 1: All these women are just getting killed, and yeah, what
Speaker 1: they're doing is bad, but I don't want to give
Speaker 1: people a free pass like that is also bad. But
Speaker 1: it was interesting about how her views on how the
Speaker 1: pardon power should or the circumstances under which shouldor shouldn't
Speaker 1: be exercised. Anyway, in the American Constitution, this kind of
Speaker 1: royal prerogative went to the president, and it goes to
Speaker 1: the president over federal crimes. So if someone is suspected
Speaker 1: of accused, of convicted of a federal crime, the president
Speaker 1: has the power to pardon them. Short of a full pardon.
Speaker 1: The president could also just commute someone's sentence. Someone's been
Speaker 1: convicted and sentenced to forty years, the president can commute
Speaker 1: the sentence to forty days to time sir, to twenty
Speaker 1: years instead of forty years. And the president can commute
Speaker 1: a death sentence to life imprisonment or to something less
Speaker 1: than less than death, okay, to not the death penalty.
Speaker 1: So Joe Biden has total complete power to absolve these people,
Speaker 1: to just say all forty of these prisoners no death penalty,
Speaker 1: and no subsequent president can remove that. It's not justiciable.
Speaker 1: Congress can't reverse it, the courts can't reverse it. Literally,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden can do this with a snap of his fingers.
Speaker 1: And it's just a testament to this JFK. And it
Speaker 1: started with JFK. JFK was running for president. A bunch
Speaker 1: of American Protestants were like, still had some of this
Speaker 1: old no nothing attitudes towards Catholics, still thought they were
Speaker 1: a little weird o. JFK is gonna have a red
Speaker 1: line to the Pope. And what JFK should have said was,
Speaker 1: I'm a Catholic. My beliefs will inform how I govern
Speaker 1: the principles of justice that I know through divine revelation
Speaker 1: and through the authentic teaching of the Church. That will
Speaker 1: be how I govern. If you like it, vote for me.
Speaker 1: If you don't, that's fine. Instead, what he said was, well, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm going to do what's right for
Speaker 1: the country first before I do what's correct, based on
Speaker 1: what my religion tells me. If it's the national interest
Speaker 1: over here and what my religion tells me, I'll do
Speaker 1: it's in the national interest. As if for a Catholic
Speaker 1: those two things could be it could possibly be opposed.
Speaker 1: And from that small step came people like Mario Cuomo,
Speaker 1: the governor of New York, who gave a speech at
Speaker 1: Notre Dame in nineteen eighty four saying, well, I know
Speaker 1: what my church teaches me about abortion, but I can't
Speaker 1: impose that on everyone else. In the national interest dictates that.
Speaker 1: You know that we're a pluralistic society and people should
Speaker 1: be free to make their own choices. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: know what my faith tells me over here. But and
Speaker 1: this leads all the way to Joe Biden. Here's Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: who even for something that would be totally popular among
Speaker 1: Catholic among his fellow Democrats to commute the death sentence
Speaker 1: for these people. He won't do it. Why because he
Speaker 1: realizes it would be politically unpopular in general. Now maybe
Speaker 1: he'll do it now. Maybe he'll do it now that
Speaker 1: he's a lame duck, kind of like how he pardoned Hunter.
Speaker 1: When we return, are there going to be more pardons? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's next. On the John Girardi Show, President Biden pardoned
Speaker 1: his son Hunter. Who's next? A couple of new thoughts
Speaker 1: things I've been reading from other people, hearing from other
Speaker 1: people about the Hunter Biden pardon and who is likely
Speaker 1: coming up next as far as pardons that the president
Speaker 1: may very well issue. So there's two different stories. One
Speaker 1: is other people in the Biden administration who might get pardons.
Speaker 1: Two is other people in the Biden influence peddling scheme
Speaker 1: who may get pardons. So let's start with other people
Speaker 1: in the Biden influence peddling scheme. All right, Hunter got
Speaker 1: pardoned about a week or how long was that? I
Speaker 1: guess it was two Sundays ago. Hunter got pardoned two
Speaker 1: Sundays ago. Why did he get pardoned in December I
Speaker 1: had a friend who was asking me, what's going on?
Speaker 1: Why is Hunter being pardoned so early? Is Joe gonna
Speaker 1: step down to let Kamala be president for like a month?
Speaker 1: I was like, He's not gonna let Kamala be president.
Speaker 1: The reason why he pardoned Hunter so soon, relatively speaking,
Speaker 1: is because Hunter was about to face a sentencing hearing
Speaker 1: for one of his conviction slash believing guilty. So to
Speaker 1: obviate the need for that, Biden's like, all right, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just pardon him now. Then he doesn't have to
Speaker 1: go through the sentencing hearing. But most of the time,
Speaker 1: when presidents pardon people, they do it, you know, the
Speaker 1: minute before they leave. They do it on you know,
Speaker 1: on the morning of January twentieth. So the new president
Speaker 1: takes the oath of office at noon on January twentieth.
Speaker 1: So often the outgoing president will issue his pardons that morning,
Speaker 1: you know, hours before he relinquishes his office. So there's
Speaker 1: more Biden pardons coming, like, no question, no question that
Speaker 1: there are whom will he pardon? So one thing to
Speaker 1: think about with the Hunter pardon is the Fifth Amendment stuff,
Speaker 1: All right, in America, we have a protection against being
Speaker 1: forced to testify. Ordinarily, you have to testify if you're
Speaker 1: subpoenaed in some kind of criminal matter or what have you.
Speaker 1: But the one exception to this is your privilege under
Speaker 1: the Fifth Amendment. You're being questioned, grand jury hauls you
Speaker 1: in for questioning, for gathering evidence, you can say, well,
Speaker 1: I'm invoking my Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination. If
Speaker 1: there's a chance that you could incriminate yourself, you may
Speaker 1: simply invoke your Fifth Amendment rights, and then you don't
Speaker 1: have to testify. You don't have to testify over that
Speaker 1: area of concern. Hunter has now waived his ability to
Speaker 1: do that because he's been pardoned. Hunter faces no criminal
Speaker 1: jeopardy whatsoever for any and let's remember, Joe gave him
Speaker 1: a really big, really broad, really sweeping pardon all the
Speaker 1: stuff that Hunter's attorneys wanted in the sweetheart deal that
Speaker 1: they tried to hatch with the federal prosecutors to give
Speaker 1: Hunter this complete immunity bath for all the shenanigans he
Speaker 1: was doing in Europe and China from twenty fourteen through
Speaker 1: approximately twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, all the stuff he was
Speaker 1: doing doing possible money laundering violations of the Farah, the
Speaker 1: Foreign Agent Registration Act, anything that might have been bribery,
Speaker 1: you know, et cetera, et cetera, his tax evasion, all
Speaker 1: of it. Hunter has a clean slate. He's got it.
Speaker 1: And the gun you know, and the gun thing clean slate,
Speaker 1: newly sun life. Hunter faces no criminal jeopardy whatsoever. As
Speaker 1: a result, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.
Speaker 1: If they say, hey, Hunter, we the FBI under cash PTEL,
Speaker 1: We're calling you in. We would like you to testify.
Speaker 1: We are investigating Jim Biden, Joe Biden, Halle Biden, this Biden,
Speaker 1: that Biden for possible criminal violations. And Hunter would say, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to testify. Well, no, no, you've got
Speaker 1: a grand jury subpoena. Well, I invoked my Fifth Amendment rights.
Speaker 1: You can't self incriminate. Hunter cannot incriminate himself anymore because
Speaker 1: he's been pardoned. He's been pardoned for anything he might
Speaker 1: have done in that timeframe. That's how expansive the immunity
Speaker 1: bath was that he got. He's clean, he's pure as
Speaker 1: the wind driven snow. He is untouchable. As a result,
Speaker 1: he can testify. He has to testify, and if he
Speaker 1: lies under oath, then well, that's something he won't be
Speaker 1: immune for from. If he lies under oath to a
Speaker 1: grand jury, he's not immune. You know, Joe Biden can
Speaker 1: pardon him for anything in the past, he can't pardon
Speaker 1: him for anything he might do in the future. So
Speaker 1: clearly Joe is concerned about all this stuff Hunter did. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: there's no reason why he would have given Hunter such
Speaker 1: a broad, expansive immunity bath. If he just said, I
Speaker 1: pardon Hunter for his conviction for the tax thing that
Speaker 1: he pled guilty to, or I pardon Hunter for the
Speaker 1: tax stuff that he pled guilty to, and I pardon
Speaker 1: Hunter for his gun charge conviction. If that was all
Speaker 1: Joe had done, that would be one thing. But no,
Speaker 1: Joe completely the parameters of his pardon were so broad
Speaker 1: it's covering the entire Biden family influencing pedaling scheme, influence
Speaker 1: pedaling scheme. So I think it would be insane to
Speaker 1: just pardon Hunter. He probably has to pardon Jim, his brother,
Speaker 1: and there may be other associates that he has to
Speaker 1: pardon just to cover everyone's base, cover everyone's rear end.
Speaker 1: Now I'm guessing he won't pardon himself this is. One
Speaker 1: of the interesting things about the pardon power is that
Speaker 1: it's it's outside parameters have not really been fully tested yet.
Speaker 1: Can a president pardon him or herself unclear? It's never
Speaker 1: been done. Does doesn't mean it can't be done. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously there's a kind of self serving element of it.
Speaker 1: There's a way that it kind of, you know, makes
Speaker 1: the president completely unaccountable for criminal law violations while he
Speaker 1: is president, and then once he's out of office, he
Speaker 1: can just kind of pardon himself for anything he ever
Speaker 1: did that's a violation of federal law and just move
Speaker 1: on with life. You know. Seems kind of dicey, kind
Speaker 1: of undermines the system. Might be something the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: would have to adjudicate. I don't know that he's going
Speaker 1: to do that, but he's going to pardon enough people
Speaker 1: to do a real cya. Now, when we return, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the discussions about pardons of other
Speaker 1: Biden administration officials and how we're headed towards the downfall
Speaker 1: of the Roman Republic. Next on the John Girardi Show,
Speaker 1: Rome was governed by a republican system for hundreds of years,
Speaker 1: and the Roman Republic its downfall that would sometimes called
Speaker 1: the Roman Revolution was not a you know, single event,
Speaker 1: kind of like the French Revolution that took you know,
Speaker 1: a place over a couple of years. It was a
Speaker 1: century long downward spile spiral from about one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty BC to thirty one BC the Battle of Actium,
Speaker 1: when Octavian defeated mark Antony and Cleopatra and became the
Speaker 1: undisputed master of the Roman world and established a new
Speaker 1: form of governing the Roman Empire, making it an empire effectively,
Speaker 1: which was called the principit, where he and he alone
Speaker 1: was the chief man, the leading man of Rome, of
Speaker 1: the entire Roman Empire, and wound up basically in his
Speaker 1: one person governing the whole thing. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: why the Roman Republic broke down. There were a host
Speaker 1: of reasons why, but one of them was what we
Speaker 1: might call today law fair. Julius Caesar crossed Octim slash
Speaker 1: Augustus's great uncle, who would name Octavian as his heir.
Speaker 1: Julius Caesar started the civil war that would ultimately result
Speaker 1: in him being the master of the Roman world and
Speaker 1: then being murdered. Why well, Julius Caesar had military command
Speaker 1: in Gaul. His military command was running out. He was
Speaker 1: being told to come back to Rome. He had this
Speaker 1: awesome loyal army at his back, and he knew if
Speaker 1: he came into Rome, if he left his military territory,
Speaker 1: which was bordered by the Rubicon River sort of in
Speaker 1: northern Italy, if he crossed the Rubicon River, he would
Speaker 1: immediately need to put down his power. His military authority
Speaker 1: was only for the regions of Gaul, Cicel Pine Gaul,
Speaker 1: which was actually kind of northern Italy, and trans Alpine Gaul,
Speaker 1: which is France, so that was the only place where
Speaker 1: he was allowed to be leading armies. If he crossed
Speaker 1: the Rubicon with his armies, he was in rebellion against
Speaker 1: the Roman state. Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in forty
Speaker 1: nine BC. Why because he realized if he just followed,
Speaker 1: if he obeyed orders and went back to Rome, he
Speaker 1: would be hit with lawsuits that would result either in
Speaker 1: his execution or his banishment from Rome. And the stakes
Speaker 1: were raised basically because of decisions he had made when
Speaker 1: he had been consul, and his political enemies were just
Speaker 1: looking for some excuse to prosecute him because he was
Speaker 1: gaining too much money. He was gaining too much power,
Speaker 1: gaining too much influence. He had conquered all of France,
Speaker 1: had amassed prodigious wealth and power. As a result, he
Speaker 1: has these loyal armies at his back. They're trying to
Speaker 1: undercut him. They want him to come back to Rome
Speaker 1: so they can prosecute him and send him off into exile,
Speaker 1: neutralize him as a political force. And he said, no,
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna do it, and he crossed the Rubicon
Speaker 1: with his armies, started the Civil War and would eventually
Speaker 1: become the master of the Roman world for a cut
Speaker 1: short period after Brutus Cassius and the other so called
Speaker 1: liberators stabbed him to death. Well, lawfare was this huge
Speaker 1: problem in Rome. The stakes were too high. Things people
Speaker 1: did while they were in political office would result in
Speaker 1: these sort of not really sort of. The Roman system
Speaker 1: of lawfair was basically individual people could charge you with crimes.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a prosecutor who would charge you. Individuals could
Speaker 1: charge you with crimes. And the stakes were so high
Speaker 1: you could be executed, you could be sent into exile.
Speaker 1: And so you had these Roman power brokers, these Roman josunerals,
Speaker 1: these Roman wealthy guys who are like I'd rather start
Speaker 1: a revolutionary war than submit myself to that. The stakes
Speaker 1: were so high. It seems as though the Biden administration
Speaker 1: is looking at blanket pardons for tons and tons of
Speaker 1: Biden officials basically to try to hold them immune for
Speaker 1: all the abuses of power that they exercised while they
Speaker 1: were in office. Discussions like this are happening within Biden
Speaker 1: world with Biden completely absent according to the reporting, and
Speaker 1: it kind of a stop. I mean, this is such
Speaker 1: a bad thing to just ramp up the way that
Speaker 1: Trump was prosecuted, and now for Democrats to say, basically, well,
Speaker 1: we'll take law fair in this different direction to completely
Speaker 1: hold immune anyone who did anything wrong. It's a dangerous
Speaker 1: precedent that they're trying to set. That'll do it for
Speaker 1: John Gerardy Show. See you next time on Power Talk.