Uniter-in-Chief
When Joe Biden became the President of the United States, in the middle of the Covid pandemic and just days after an Insurrection led by his predecessor, he made a choice. He could have appointed an aggressive Department of Justice, led by an avenging Attorney General. He could have made sure that everyone who dared to contemplate overthrowing the Constitutional process, the world-admired “peaceful transition of power”, were brought to justice. Joe Biden might have made the prime mission of his Presidency to hold the leaders of that criminal insurrection accountable, to the United States and the world.
He didn’t. Instead of an avenger, he appointed a “neutral arbiter” as the Attorney General, Appellate Court Justice Merrick Garland. The Judge was exactly what you’d want in a member of the court (or a Supreme Court Justice nominee, which he was). Garland was a dispassionate, apolitical enforcer of the law. He was appointed to hold the Justice Department above politics, and re-new American’s faith in “blind justice”.
Biden made his choice with both eyes open. He knew Garland: who he was and what he believed. Biden wanted, above all, to return America to “normalcy”. He believed (believes) that the “job” of the Biden Administration was to restore order, norms, and values in American government, after the “chaos” Trump’s Presidency. Justice under Trump’s Attorney Generals; Sessions, Whittaker and Barr, became an extension of Trump politics. It was a truly “weaponized” arm of the White House. Biden saw himself as a “uniter-in-chief”, and could only see one way forward for the Nation.
Weaponized
Neutrality was so important, the Biden allowed his only surviving son to remain in jeopardy, under investigation by Trump Justice. Garland kept the Trump appointed US Attorney investigating Hunter on the job and, in fact, raised his status to Special Prosecutor, giving him increased investigatory power.
Joe Biden thought he could heal the America’s political divide. His Justice Department didn’t give the Insurrectionists a “pass”, but they did have a very, very, deliberate process. It took years to start, and it took the Democratic House of Representatives and the January 6th Committee hearings to approach the actual Insurrectionist leaders. Maybe, Biden didn’t really want to have all that in the open, a clear public wedge against the MAGA world. But he put Garland in charge, without a political check. And it became, like many things involving Trump, “If we do something wrong, we’ll accuse you of the same thing”. The “MAGA mantra” was that the Biden “Democrat” (sic) Justice Department was politically “weaponized”, not theirs.
Biden’s good intentions were for naught. By a slim margin (really, about 255,000 in the swing states) out of 152 million votes, Trump returned as President. Not surprisingly, he returns with vengeance in mind. He is creating a truly “weaponized” Justice Department, to be led by a truly partisan Attorney General, Pam Bondi. The “point of the Justice spear”, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is to be headed by Kash Patel, and avowed partisan who has published an actual “hit list” of enemies to be prosecuted. Already the axe is falling: several Justice lawyers, non-partisan civil servants, were fired yesterday, for being a part of legal teams investigating Insurrectionists.
Hindsight
One of Trump’s first acts as President, was to pardon nearly 1500 people convicted of crimes in the Insurrection. His first order was to erase history, and re-write the narrative. There wasn’t an “insurrection”, it was a peaceful protest with a few that got out of hand, provoked to violence by the police response. They are all free now.
Of course, hindsight is perfect. Looking back, Biden should have appointed a “Pam Bondi” and a “Kash Patel”. He should have allowed for Justice to be done to all those in the Insurrection, from day one of his Presidency. Of course it would have furthered the National abyss that is our political divide. But what would be the difference; we are just as divided as ever today.
And Americans would not be facing the daily outrage of Trump on almost every front: from migrants round-ups to grave threats to public health (Robert Kennedy Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services), to a MAGA-Justice Department seeking vengeance.
Joe Biden was the right man, with the right idea.
Unfortunately it was at the wrong time in American history.
