Obama Pardon Cartoons

After hinting support, McCain says he's undecided on Trump's pick for Secretary of State

Sen.  John McCain said in an interview Wednesday that he is undecided about supporting President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.
“I am very concerned about someone who took a friendship award from Vladimir Putin, who’s a butcher,” McCain told CBS. McCain called Putin a KGB agent and said “I’ve had concerns and I’ve had several conversations with him.”
Earlier this week, McCain told Fox News that he was leaning toward supporting the former ExxonMobil CEO. When pressed about his support, McCain said, “Barely, yes. I think [Tillerson] is a good man; I think he is aware of Vladimir Putin.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that three Republican senators have expressed concern over Tillerson. Sen. Marco Rubio is reportedly undecided on his vote and said he will not discuss the matter until he comes to a decision.
During the tense back-and-forths at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing last week, Rubio, R-Fla., cross-examined Tillerson on policy regarding Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. At the end of Rubio's second questioning period, Tillerson sought to allay any concerns the aggressive Rubio may have had.
"There seems to be some misunderstanding that I see the world through a different lens, and I do not," Tillerson said. "...But I'm also clear-eyed and realistic about dealing with cultures."
Tillerson's statement followed a heated initial session during which the ExxonMobil CEO refused to specifically call Putin a "war criminal."
"I find it discouraging your ability to cite that, which I think is globally accepted," Rubio said.

Obama should pardon Hillary Clinton, former assistant US attorney says

A New York lawyer appealed to President Obama Wednesday in an opinion piece to pardon former-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and others who may be “potential targets” of an investigation into the use of the private email server.
Robert Begleiter, a partner at Constantine Cannon LLP and former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, wrote in The Daily News that the Constitution permits a president to pardon someone who has not been charged with a crime.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he has no intention of investigating Clinton, despite the familiar chant by supporters at his primary rallies, “Lock her up.” He even refered to her as “Crooked Hillary.”
“I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t,” Trump told editors at The New York Times shortly after the election. “She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways, and I’m not looking to hurt them at all. The campaign was vicious.”
Begleiter wrote that he wishes Trump well as president, but said it would be a gamble in the event Clinton ever criticized Trump during his presidency. He called it “sideways” to believe that a person who accepted a pardon is admitting guilt.
He wrote that a pardon for Clinton could, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, “restore tranquility to the commonwealth”
John Crudele, a financial columnist with The New York Post, wrote that Obama is the most forgiving president in U.S. history, and commuted the sentences of 1,000. He theorized that Obama likely does not personally like Clinton very much and the email scandal put him in an “embarrassing” situation.
“But the best reason for not giving a pardon is simple: Obama doesn’t really know what kind of trouble Hillary might be in. And she would have to admit to things she might not be ready to reveal to get completely out of trouble,” he wrote.

'Hamilton's' Lin-Manuel Miranda 'sobbing' over Obama's decision to commute Oscar Lopez Rivera's sentence

"Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was brought to tears by President Obama's decision to commute the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera.
"Sobbing with gratitude here in London," Miranda wrote on Twitter. He was so moved he agreed to play Alexander Hamilton at a Chicago performance of "Hamilton" in honor of Obama's decision.
Lopez Rivera, who grew up in Chicago, was convicted of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government in 1981 while leading the Puerto Rican independence group FALN. The group bombed buildings in the 1970s. With Obama's action Tuesday, he is slated to be released May 17.
Miranda, who is of Puerto Rican descent, tweeted he "wished he was with every Puerto Rican in Chicago right now."
Miranda last played the title role in New York In July 2016. "Hamilton" opened in October in Chicago, led by Miguel Cervantes.

Obama decision to free FALN terror group leader sparks outrage

He was convicted of trying to overthrow the government, and named a leader of a terrorist group that bombed public buildings and killed people.
Now, President Obama's decision to commute the sentence of FALN member Oscar Lopez Rivera has sparked outrage from terror victims.
"I'm disgusted by what the president did. It's a travesty," said Joe Connor, whose father was killed in an infamous FALN terrorist bombing in Manhattan.
"The enemies of our country are being rewarded, and being treated as if they are heroes. What we hear is that Oscar Lopez Rivera did not get to know his family. Well, neither did my father. The victims and the Americans get pushed aside."
Rivera has been serving a 55-year federal prison sentence for being a leader of the Puerto Rican terrorist group, which sought independence for the U.S. island territory. The FALN claimed responsibility for over 70 bombings in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago from 1974 to 1983. The attacks killed five people and wounded dozens more, including police officers.
In 1981, Lopez Rivera was convicted of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government and arms trafficking. He was later sentenced to serve 15 more years behind bars for trying to escape twice, and he never renounced his radical cause.
In 1999, on the eve of Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate run in New York, her husband, President Clinton, commuted the sentences of 16 imprisoned FALN members. But Lopez Rivera reportedly turned the offer down, refusing to be released unless all of his comrades were released from prison.
Now, 18 years later, he will be walking out of the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., a free man, his sentence cut short by 34 years.
"I went to his parole hearing in 2011," said Connor. "We were looking for some sort of reconciliation, some sort of admission, some sort of atonement. We didn't get any of that. He is a sworn terrorist, and for the president to release a sworn terrorist for political reasons, or whatever reason, is a disgrace."
Joe was only 9 years old when his father Frank went to have lunch at the historic Fraunces Tavern, near Wall Street, on Jan. 24, 1975. The colonial landmark is where President George Washington bid farewell to his troops on Dec. 4, 1783. That is why the symbol of the nation was targeted.
As Frank had lunch, a bomb suddenly exploded, killing him and three others. More than 60 people were injured. Frank Connor was 33 years old, and since then his son has taken up the crusade to speak out against terrorism and freedom for the killers. He says Lopez Rivera never admitted or accepted responsibility for his acts, never expressed any remorse, and that the president's decision sends a horrible message.
"It does nothing but encourage terrorism, it makes you think that at some point, terrorism will be forgiven," he said.
Lopez Rivera has become a cause célèbre among some Latino officials and celebrities, who have claimed he is a freedom fighter unfairly imprisoned for his political beliefs. His supporters range from Broadway's "Hamilton" creator Lin Manuel Miranda to several members of Congress, the mayor of San Juan, the speaker of the New York City Council, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. More than 100,000 people signed a petition urging Obama to grant the clemency.
“I think it is an historic moment for the Puerto Rican people," said Lopez Rivera's brother, Jose, who lives in Chicago.
"It's a moment where we can say the president of the United States, this President Obama, has really shown that we have to reach a level of reconciliation. My brother went to prison and charged with seditious conspiracy for exposing the fact that the U.S. is a colonial power in Puerto Rico," he said.
Connor countered, "There are no political prisoners, the United States does not hold political prisoners, these were terrorists."
Connor is also calling for the extradition of American fugitives from Cuba, including convicted cop killer and Black Liberation Army member Joanne Chesimard and FALN chief bomb maker Willie Morales. Morales has been called the suspected mastermind of the Fraunces Tavern bombing that killed Joe's father and he remains protected by the Castro regime even as he is on the FBI's Most Wanted List with a $100,000 reward offered for his capture.
"We have 70 or 80 fugitives in Cuba, and we have to now look to the Trump administration and say, hey we have to bring back Willie Morales," Connor said.
"We need justice, and my father deserved that justice. He was a good man, and the rest of the people who were murdered by the FALN deserve justice."
Lopez Rivera will walk out of prison a free man on May 17, and President Trump, by U.S. law, will not be able to reverse the decision.