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The Bulwark is home to Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, Bill Kristol, JVL, Sam Stein, and more. We are the largest pro-democracy bundle on Substack for news and analysis on politics and culture—supported by a community built on good-faith.
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Overtime

The Cost of Pardoning the Jan. 6th Defendants

Plus: Drone Hysteria, Alien Cultists, and the One-Armed Prophet of Cosmic Enlightenment

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Jim Swift
Dec 19, 2024
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The Cost of Pardoning the Jan. 6th Defendants
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Recently in The Bulwark:

  • BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: Trump’s Vengeance Tour Has Already Started

  • JVL: Never Trumpers Were Right, Actually šŸ”

Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a subscriber: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.


KIM WEHLE: The Cost of Pardoning the Jan. 6th Defendants

A woman waves a flag at a vigil for January 6th defendants outside the DC jail in Washington, DC on January 3, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

IN HIS ā€œPERSON OF THE YEARā€ INTERVIEW with Time magazine, Donald J. Trump reiterated his campaign promise to pardon the Capitol rioters, claiming that ā€œa vast majority of them should not be in jail.ā€ While federal authorities continue to make new arrests, there have been upwards of 1,488 individuals charged across all fifty states and the District of Columbia for offenses ranging from misdemeanors to assault and seditious conspiracy. As of August 6, 2024, the Justice Department reported that there had been 894 individuals who pleaded guilty to a variety of charges. Another 223 have been convicted in trials. Some 562 have been sentenced to prison.

Among the defendants are individuals caught on tape brandishing stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches, and even an explosive device during the attack in which approximately 140 police officers were assaulted.

READ THE REST.

SAM STEIN: Dems Urge Fundraising Gurus to Put an End to All That Spam

MORE THAN 140 TOP DEMOCRATIC operatives, fundraisers, and ex-campaign staffers are calling for executives at the party’s biggest online donation portal to clean up their operation or risk donor backlash.

In a letter to the leadership of ActBlue, these Democrats said they feared that ā€œquestionableā€ fundraising tactics by unscrupulous groups and operatives were damaging the party’s reputation and hindering its ability to keep voters engaged. The signatories, who say they have collectively raised or donated $1.14 billion on ActBlue since it launched in 2004, called for a number of new features and policies designed to protect donors from exploitation.

READ THE REST.


šŸŽ„ PODCASTS AND VIDEOS šŸŽ§

  • Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Mark Hertling: Putin's Weakness [YouTube]

  • The Next Level: They're Already Tearing Themselves Apart šŸ”

  • Just Between Us: Surrender Vibes šŸ”

  • Bulwark+ Live:

    • Dem Senator to Party: Chill Out… Just a Bit [YouTube]

Did you know? Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice.
Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
šŸ“£Bulwark+ members can now listen to ad-free podcasts on Spotify! Learn more here.
Our šŸŽ„YouTube offerings are the free-versions of shows, and they do have ads.
āœļøAlso: Did you know that every podcast has a transcript for B+ members? Yes! If you’re more a reader than a listener/viewer, open any podcast and the transcript button is beneath the player.

MARTYN WENDELL JONES: Drone Hysteria, Alien Cultists, and the One-Armed Prophet of Cosmic Enlightenment

UNMANNED DRONES HAVE BEEN SWARMING New Jersey; patriotic defenders of the homeland have been zapping them with laser pointers to scramble the hostile visitors’ plans. It turns out many of the alleged drones are normal planes whose pilots have been getting their retinas fried by this ad-hoc home defense, but their accounts of frustration and potential injury are doing little to calm the drone hysteria. The intuition about a deeper, hidden reality is too strong.

Just ask any lawmaker involved in this fall’s congressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena—UFOs, in the slightly outdated parlance. In November, the Pentagon released a report documenting hundreds of new UFO sightings, including ā€œseveral particularly interesting cases.ā€ Officials claim there remains no evidence of alien activity. But Americans remain fixated on the sky, confident that they have watched portents zip across the horizon

READ THE REST.


🚨OVERTIME🚨

Happy Wednesday! Good news! Remember the murder hornet hysteria? Well: We won. Sad to miss the Reason debate tonight, but if you’re going tonight: have fun!

šŸŽThe Annual Matt Labashā€¦šŸŽ Slack Tide Christmas sale is here. Treat yourself to 30% off while you can.

The T.R.I. 2024 Holiday Gift Guide… Suggestions from Bulwark contributor Alec Dent and his wife, our fearless art director Hannah Yoest.

Chances of a government shutdown… Just went through the roof. Which raises the question: What happens if we don’t have a Speaker next month? ĀÆ\_(惄)_/ĀÆ

It’s Time For A Little Recreational Mental Illness In New Jersey… As a treat. (David Roth, Defector)

Congrats to my former employer… The Lake County Captains, the High A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, for being named ā€œTeam of the Yearā€ by Baseball America. (I was a security guard during their first season when I was in college.)

Bend, Oregon… would like whoever it is putting googly eyes on its public art to please stop (BBC).

How to disappear completely… The internet is forever. But also, it isn’t. What happens to our culture when websites start to vanish at random? (S.E. Smith, The Verge)

Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.

—30—

Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.

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