Justice Brett Kavanaugh, swearing in JD Vance, is reading the oath rather than run the risk of forgetting his lines.
To err “on the side of caution” @pklein seems like a Covid-era mindset. A similar crowd of people converges on the National Mall for the March for Life around this time each year in similar conditions — harsher ones last year, in fact — and will do so later this year. An outdoor inauguration would have been feasible.
Franklin Graham’s prayer was much more openly pro-Trump than the invocation by Cardinal Dolan.
In the final minutes of his presidency, Joe Biden continues to pop out pardons and commutations like a Pez dispenser. Biden commuted “the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.”
The FBI’s take:
In 1977, Peltier was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison. He has since made numerous appeals for parole or a commutation of his sentence.
“Over the last 45 years,” said Director Wray in a letter opposing Peltier's 2024 parole request, “no fewer than 22 federal judges have evaluated the evidence and considered Peltier’s legal arguments. Each has reached the same conclusion: Peltier’s claims are meritless, and his convictions and sentence must stand.”
Reminder: Today is a national holiday in honor of a Christian minister who never held public office and spent nearly all his life far from Washington, DC.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson not exactly showing poker faces in their unhappiness at these events.
All nine justices being there is an upgrade on the usual attendance for a State of the Union address.
What a shameful spectacle the entire Biden pardon fire sale has been. Kudos to Andy McCarthy, who has been predicting that last set of Biden pardons for months.
I am sure this is one of the proudest, most amazing, humbling and breathtaking moments of J.D. Vance’s life. I also suspect he’s wondering how quickly he can get from the Inauguration ceremonies to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where his Buckeyes from THE Ohio State University will be taking on Notre Dame; kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
Joe Biden just pardoned his entire family, for everything they did between January 1, 2014 and now: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/media/1385756/dl?inline