WV Dems are really pissed at Biden's pardon choices: 'what we would expect from Trump'

Look, a dead bird

West Virginia Democrats blasted so called President Biden's clemency recipient choices and said they would expect President-elect Trump to do such actions, because everything evil in the world is due to Orange Man Bad. 

WV Democrats tend to forget that Trump already was president and didn't do the evil thing they now accuse him of planning to do, but at least they are beginning to see that the Vegetable in Chief has made a very poor move which should hurt his Party in the future.

In a statement released late on Monday, local party leaders said they praised Biden for guiding the U.S. "through significant economic challenges" but criticized the commutations given to people convicted of public corruption. Interestingly enough, the criticism is correct about the commutations, but to say that Biden led the nation "through significant economic challenges" is only partly correct. Yes, he was the leader during economic challenges, but only made the economy worse.

Inflation rates spiked to a 40-year high which significantly increased the cost of living for the average American. Consumer sentiment has been negative or at best, skeptical due to ongoing high costs for essentials such as food and fuel. And the national debt has been blown out of the water, which could create long-term economic risks and higher borrowing costs along with fiscal instability.

Meanwhile, the WV Democrats had more to say. 

"Public corruption is a betrayal of trust. When officials abuse the power of their office for personal gain, they not only harm the communities they are supposed to serve, but they also erode faith in our government institutions," wrote Chairman Mike Pushkin, a state lawmaker from Kanawha County.

"Even more troubling, these kinds of pardons are exactly what we would expect from President-elect Donald Trump, not President Biden," he couldn't stop himself from adding so as to avoid stink-eye from his peers.

Pushkin and other Democrats were especially upset about the barely sentient POTUS's decision to pardon Michael Conahan, the disgraced Pennsylvania judge at the center of the "kids-for-cash" scandal. He was found guilty of taking bribes to send young kids to for-profit prisons.

Delegate Hollis Lewis, (D-Charleston) also had a problem with Biden's choice to grant clemency to Conahan, according to Fox News Digital.

"The one that got me upset was the judge who was involved in the cash-for-kids case," he said.

"Any time that you have individuals who prey on our most vulnerable population, which are children and the elderly, that's very problematic."

Lewis pointed out that presidents from both parties have occasionally made questionable decisions on clemency, noting that a pardon can be a useful tool if used correctly.

"I don't think anybody needs to walk around with a scarlet letter of a felony for the whole lot, depending on the particular crime that they committed; if that pardon is going to allow them to move on with their lives," he said.

"But specifically when it's crimes involving the elderly… and children or crimes with patterns of violence where the evidence is clear and there's no reasonable doubt, then maybe we ought to think twice before we exonerate those individuals."

In their statement, the West Virginia Democratic Party (WVDP) also attacked Biden for pardoning Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, who was convicted for embezzling $54 million, which was the largest municipal fraud case in the U.S.

They also brought up the case of Jimmy Dimora, a former Cleveland county commissioner caught in a pay-to-play scheme.

West Virginia has been in the spotlight before during times when presidents grant pardons, like when former President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich, a decision that was heavily criticized.

Rich was accused of tax evasion and dodging sanctions against Iran and apartheid South Africa.

However, Rich also owned part of an aluminum plant on the Ohio River accused of illegally locking out 1,500 workers and hiring replacements during labor disputes.

Members of the West Virginia union were said to have protested in front of Rich's office in Switzerland.

Clinton's pardons of Rich and his business partner Pincus Green led to a federal investigation, initially handled by New York prosecutor Mary Jo White.

After White's term ended in 2002, she was succeeded by a young prosecutor whose name would come up again in another Clinton scandal years later: James Comey.

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