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OUTGOING US PRESIDENT Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons to Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US medical expert during the covid-19 pandemic, and members of his family just hours before he left the Oval Office.
It comes as incoming President Donald Trump vowed to take retribution against outspoken critics of his and as Biden prepares to leave office.
This morning Biden issued pardons to Fauci, the government committee investigating the 6 January 2021 US Capitol riot and General Mark A Milley, a former joint chief-of-staff of the US military.
He said they were issued under “exceptional circumstances”, as he felt compelled to protect the public servants.
Hours later, Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses – stating his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics”.
“Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,” he said in a statement just minutes before Trump was sworn into office in Washington DC this afternoon.
General Milley was a vocal critic of Trump and condemned the new President following the Capitol riot in 2021.
Every committee member, witness, staff member and participant in the committee tasked with investigating Trump’s role in events of that day have also been pardoned.
Biden said: “Baseless and politically-motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”
Fauci, a medical expert who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for decades, including during the outbreak of Covid in Trump’s first presidency. He has been subject to intense criticism from the political right.
Speaking to The Journal last year, Fauci maintained that he “steadfastly avoided” making political statements and claimed he neutrally navigated his role during the covid-19 pandemic the same way he conducted himself since first taking the role under Reagan.
He was, however, sharply critical of Trump during the discussion, claiming that the former President denied the seriousness of the novel viral disease, resulting in lost time. He added that Trump “failed to be a leader” at the beginning of the pandemic.
The pardons are an extreme flex of power by an outgoing President.
“Out nation relies on dedicated, selfless public servants every day,” Biden said before confirming the pardons.
“They are the lifeblood out our democracy. Yet alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.”
Biden has spent his last days in the White House urging the public to remain vigilant during Trump’s second term – warning citizens in the final speech of a ‘dangerous oligarchy’ of power and wealth taking hold in the United States.
Pardons are commonly issued to those who are accused, and found guilty, of wrongdoing. Many recepitricants of clemency could question the necessity of the move – given they all reject any claims of wrongdoing and have not been charged with crimes.
Trump is due to be sworn in as the 47th President this afternoon and could sign dozens of executive orders upon his appointment, including to overturn Biden’s migration policies and to pardon those accused of crimes during the Capitol riots.
Speaking this afternoon, following his inauguration, Trump refused to go into detail about the pardons issued by the former President before leaving office, but claimed that it was “unfortunate that he did that”.
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Shocking behaviour from Joe and the Democrats
@cup of tea: Nothing should shock anybody anymore. Mask completely off
@cup of tea: Hehe yeah ‘shocking’. Imagine wanting to save educated scientists, the informed and educated from the wrath of a demented 78 year old toddler.
I see McGregor has shown up for the party. Now I wonder what him and Trump have in common…
@Jonathan Moloney: oh look another new account for trump24/Doe etc etc.
@SerotoninWars: like when the educated Nazi scientists were ‘saved’ by the US government and brought to the USA to work there post WW2.
@Jonathan Moloney: Bioweapon. Give me strength. Get off whatever hard n far-right conspiracy feeds you are on, visit your local library, do a course, maybe. This stuff you are spouting is beyond nonsense.
How desperately sad that the algorithms and reactionary and embittered groupthink have led us to a place where you feel perfectly ok making excuses and trying to wriggle out of the worst behaviour imaginable. You people really have lost your moral compass and have no shame whatsoever. I feel so sorry for all the women reading these types of comments, knowing people with these views not only walk among us but are now in fashion in certain circles. Dark dark times.
@Joe Willis: Oh god. If you really can’t tell the difference between someone like Fauci and actual Nazis, there is no point going any further with this. How did we get this dumb as a species?
@SerotoninWars: you’d have to laugh at all the trump supporters clutching their pearls. Like trump is a bastion of honesty lol
@SerotoninWars: One was fighting world Jewry the other trying to enrich pharmaceutical billionaire shareholders by pushing the vaccine on everyone.
@Fiona: I know Fiona. The sad fact is that deep down, many love him because he validates and excuses their worst impulses and, in some cases, past and current behaviours. It’s at the stage now where if someone is strongly pro-Trump I would be extremely worried if any of the women in my life were around them alone. The excuses, lies and support of this degenerate is the biggest red flag going.
@Jonathan Moloney: I’d say one of your female loved ones would find it difficult that you support a s e X offender, who has invited another s e x offender to his inauguration.
@Jonathan Moloney: Throwing a metal trolly through a bus window, which could have killed somebody. Punching a man in the face for not accepting a drink. Numerous dangerous driving offences. Admitting to possession of cocaine, etc, etc. The list goes on. Yes, McGregor is an angel. He fits right in with the Jan 6th crowd.
@SerotoninWars: were we always this dumb and social media has highlighted it? Or has social media turned people like Joe into moronic parrots who just repeat crap they hear in their echo chambers? Someone said yesterday, to futire historians, this period will be known as The Dumb Ages. Nail on the head.
@cup of tea: You seriously can’t see the reasons behind why this was done ?
@Fiona: ok Fiona please show us the ‘proof’ that leads you to make such a claim about someone. You know, actual concrete evidence shown in court that in your opinion proves beyond any reasonable doubt that McGregor and Trump were indeed guilty of sexual assault. Because maybe you feel differently, but I won’t attach such a label to someone in the absence of strong supporting evidence. So? Are you willing to back up what you just said with this strong evidence? Or will you look to swerve and avoid properly addressing the issue? (I think we all know the answer already!)
@Dermot Blaine: Yeah, that’s a fair point. There have always been incredibly ignorant people around. It just feels more acute now that we have so much more information and insight available to us, if you are willing to educate yourself. The leaps in the sciences on their own have been absolutely enormous. But people prefer getting emotional and angry over nonsense soundbites they read instead of doing some actual research and taking a look at the peer-reviewed material out there. That would take effort I guess.
The latest from Jonathan is that Fauci was part of developing Covid. They can’t possibly be unaware of Wuhan, so you just have to put it down to either the most extreme stupidity or trolling. No point engaging further…
@Eugene Burns: the attempted comparison was with Trump so it was safe to assume the issue was allegations of sexual assault. I wasn’t commenting on anything else. You know that, of course, but you simply couldn’t resist the opportunity to get in a nice virtue signal, could you? Good little boy.
@Eugene Burns: Yes I agree..much better fit than the Oct 7th crowd
@Fiona: I’m loving watching all you far-left wokists having meltdowns! God bless President Trump! Common sense shall prevail. No more 164 genders. MAGA
@Jonathan Moloney: the comparison is that both men are bullies who try to use their money to get themselves out of the trouble they get in
@cup of tea:
This is going to drive the MAGA conspiracy theorists daft….
Remeber these are people that thinking pardoning Rodger Stone and Manafort was perfectly acceptable…
IF Trump thought he was a criminal, why didn’t he arrest him?
They have no evidence but don’t let that interrupt them…
Fauci is only guilty of being professional and showing Trump up as being an incompetent fool… This is unacceptable to the MAGA… Devotion is everything to them
@SerotoninWars: 100 percent. McGregor has no place there. Birds of a feather and all that.
@SuziD: If enough of them group together and excuse and endorse each other’s behaviour, they can normalise it in their heads. It’s understandable on one extremely rancid level. Convincing yourself that your behaviour is ok and widespread is much easier to digest than taking an honest look at yourself and accepting the type of person you are. Even though this movement is full of sociopaths and narcissists, you’d have to imagine there will be some who, deep down, have a gnawing sense of guilt. There must be a grain of humanity in there that whispers to them when they are alone in the dark. It takes the most extreme of the extremists not to have the tiniest bit of understanding that assaulting women and using craven, dishonest manipulation tactics will never be decent, kind, moral or acceptable behaviour.
@Jonathan Moloney: Yes, the US justice system is rigged. The Irish justice system is rigged. The 2020 US election was rigged. Notice the trend? If it doesn’t go our way, it’s rigged…
@SerotoninWars: I listen to you and wonder!
@Eugene Burns: was it rigged this year? The US election?
@SerotoninWars: so true, McGregor should never come back, an embarrassment to the country and a danger to every woman.
@Dermot Blaine: the lazy and ignorant are out of their basements on social media every day now. A plague on the world.
@cup of tea: like something you see in North korea
@Jonathan Moloney: one of the most unhinged, misinformed rants I’ve ever read. Well done.
@Jonathan Moloney:
“Anthony Fauci funded the research that developed it, and then lied about it after the virus outbreak”.
Post the evidence you are clearly in possession of, to back that claim up. Back to worshipping at the altar of sexual predators with ye.
@Eugene Burns: you mean FBI integrators?
@cup of tea: grow up. You’ve no idea what bitter little trump would have done
@SerotoninWars: you don’t know do you !
Read a bit more !
@cup of tea: Donnie just pardoned insurrection prisoners
@SerotoninWars:
Fauci was a lifesaver during covid.
His solid advice,and real facts were so important to people.
He deserves a medal.
@Eugene Burns:
They are all Trump’s kind of guys
One big melting pot of misfits.
@Eugene Burns:
They are all Trump’s kind of guys
One big pot of self satisfying ,narcissists.
@SerotoninWars: I’m a woman….so please don’t sorry fie me….it’s actually people with views like yours who are actually the danger to real women!
@Jonathan Moloney: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations
“Donald Trump has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, including non-consensual kissing or groping, by at least 25 women since the 1970s. In June 2019, writer E. Jean Carroll alleged in New York magazine that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996.” (He was subsquently convicted of it in court. The judge referred to it as rape.)
Mc Gregor was recently convicted of rape, as I suppose you’re aware.
Why would he need to pardon Dr. Fauci? Surely everything Dr. Fauci did was in the public interest, right? He protected the American people, right? I can’t get my head around it. It’s almost like Dr. Fauci did something wrong, but that could never be the case. Right?
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: trump wants to be popular, so he’ll do what he thinks will make him popular, like putting innocent people in jail. His rabid base are hungry for blood.
Nut job, Trump and his clown supporters on here and in America hate dissent.
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: he’s the devil as far as the anti-vaxx crowd are concerned. There are people in the Trump base who likely don’t even think COVID was real and all those in charge of leading the response to be conspirators of the deep state whatever they got hoodwinked into believing. When Trump is pushing this narrative of purposefully vague revenge and retribution pardoning possible unfair targets is the right thing to do
@Macho Movie Man: bootlicker for pharmaceutical billionaire shareholders. What is it about these billionaires that don’t know you exist that you love so much?
@Fiona: you think fauci is innocent? You obviously haven’t a bloody clue what you’re talking about.
@Joe Willis: Trump is surrounded by a bunch of billionaires whose only motivation is to get even richer and more powerful and the Trump clowns on here think they actually give a damn about them.
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: are you braindead???? Trumptard would have come after him. Now he can’t.
Great move
Trump wants to imprison anyone who he dislikes. Only a matter of time before red states change the pledge of allegiance in scjools to “We pledge allegiance to Donald Trump…” The Trump youth summer camps will be fun
@FoxyBoiiYT: no the great moves are about to start.
@FoxyBoiiYT: Is it only a matter of time is it? Do you really believe that? How have you made it this far in life. Do you pledge allegiance to Dr. Magnus Hirshfeld?
@FoxyBoiiYT: Someone’s been reading a bit too much Huffington Post
@FoxyBoiiYT: stop
@FoxyBoiiYT: didn’t the democrats do the same foe the ladt 8 years
@Dave f Doe:. If you put Fu in front if it.
Safe and effective they said
@Kevin O Brien: Which it is. Only weirdos keep on the anti vaxx wagon. Looking for a free payout eh?
@FoxyBoiiYT: Have you gotten your latest booster?
@Chop Chop: I have, as someone who’d have been dead 30 years ago if it weren’t for modern medicine, I trust my doctors and their advice
@Chop Chop: Nope, stopped after first booster. I’m not in a group that needs boosters and unlike what some of ye think i wasn’t forced to!
@Chop Chop: No need, they did the job.
@FoxyBoiiYT: Not in a group that needs boosters, but got a booster vaccine. You really are some man.
@Joe Willis: I got one booster, the first one. Then taking advice decided I didn’t need more. Unlike you I didn’t simply listen to wierdos on Twitter or a podcast that was incidentally selling “vitamins” that said you didn’t need vaccines because vitamins were better….
@FoxyBoiiYT: I got the vaccine. I wanted to go on holidays in 2021, when you need a proof if vaccine. I’m not saying the vaccine is some sinister thing that will harm me, but I don’t have a hatred to people who decided not to get it. It doesn’t effect me or anybody else if they get it or not. You can still catch and spread the virus if you are vaccinated. It’s just people like you who tried to guilt people into taking it so you can enrich pharmaceutical billionaire shareholders.
@FoxyBoiiYT: wont need payout Was to intelligent to take it
@FoxyBoiiYT: you took 3 shots (presumably Pfizer seeing as you’re not in the recommended astrazenaca age group) of something that there has no published clinical trial data.
Pfizer trial used Process 1 manufacturing (ie. no cell culture needed)
but they used Process 2 to upscale manufacturing which uses E.coli culture and now has been found to have dna contamination well above acceptable limits in normal medicines (wrapped up in lipid nanoparticles to deliver it straight to the cell in this case).
Pfizer also included an SV40 promoter without telling the EMA. That’s a concern, and our very own Emer Cooke did not do her job.
You were not informed about what was injected into you. No one was.
@pat mcgovern: Look up Kevin McKernan’s research who worked on the human genome project if you’re curious.
There’s nothing pretty about what went on in the last 4 or 5 years and there’s nothing smart about not listening to scientists on podcasts.
@Kevin O Brien: “to intelligent” were ya ?
To pardon someone means they did something.
@Darran Macken: with Trump as an enemy, breathing is reason enough for a pardon.
@Patricia Mc namara: ah stop, that made up trump stuff is old it’s over, he’s not the big boogy man you where trained to believe, again to pardon someone means they where guilty of something that’s how it works.
@Patricia Mc namara: accepting a pardon accepts guilt.
@Patricia Mc namara: that’s a really weak argument in the sense that it’s not an argument at all.
Trump pardoned 200 plus people in his last term.
Biden has pardoned 8k plus this term.
Unprecedented.
Fauci is not an honest broker.
Scary precedent. What’s stopping Trump doing the same for the next group of zealots that need protection? As for Fauci, it does seem like there’s a case to answer there. Millions of dollars being directed towards research groups who push the narrative that it was most likely a natural out break rather than an accidental outbreak from the research facility stinks .
@paul hayes: trump already did that the last time round.
@kendra jackson: Trump didn’t ‘preemptively pardon’ anyone. In any case Biden’s move is likely to be found unconstitutional if/when it arrives before The Supreme Court.
@Jonathan Moloney: Per the Supreme Court, he’s allowed to do whatever he wants in the official capacity as President…or does that only work with Trump?
@Jonathan Moloney: I thought that all actions of a president were legal and they were immune from any consequences?
@Ciaran Murphy: from what I’ve looked at it’ll need legal interpretation but won’t count on a state level either way.
It’s absolutely nuts to ask Americans to accept “preemptive” pardons for anyone just because the president says so.
Makes a mockery of their legal system.
George W. Bush (2001-2009) – 200
Barack Obama (2009-2017) – 1927
Donald Trump (2017-2021) – 237
Joe Biden (2021-2025) – 8064
Historically speaking though, Biden must have a lot of dodgy mates lol
Interesting thing to do, if he did nothing wrong… It’ll all come out in the wash!
@Chop Chop: Making the people feel even more powerless than they do already. Another nail in the coffin of the great American dream
@Chop Chop: he did nothing wrong. But Biden knows Trump is an unhinged sociopath and he took a premptive strick to protect innocent people from the revenge Trump has promised.
@Dermot Blaine: innocent people like who? Hunter Biden?
@Dermot Blaine: He didn’t help fund gain of function research in the Wuhan lab?
@Joe Willis: no Anthony Fauci and the committee who investigated Trumps insurrection.
@Dermot Blaine: There was no “Trumps insurrection”. Didn’t happen.
@Dermot Blaine: is the unarmed insurrection in the room with us right now?
*Waits patiently for the ‘nobody is above the law’ crowd to attempt to justify this now that their folks are out of power*
@Jonathan Moloney: Yes, the narrative has changed, Janus faced Democrats!
The whole thing stinks, a can of worms!
@Brian Hunt: Are RTE exempt from the rules of balanced programming. ?
@thomas molloy: RTE are a rule unto themselves, provided the government narrative is maintained!
@Brian Hunt: Shameful.
Trump granted 143 pardons and commutations in his last day in office. There’s nothing unusual here.
@neil holland: Actually there is a lot unusual here. None of Trump’s pardons were ‘preemptive’. Love how you guys try to twist yourselves into pretzels. One minute it’s ‘nobody is above the law!!!!’ next minute it’s ‘akshually, unprecedented preemptive pardons is TOTALLY normal’.
@Jonathan Moloney: it’d make you angry wouldn’t it? Much like trump and anyone who follows him twisting the truth to fit their own narrative.
@Jonathan Moloney: preemptive pardons have been used since the civil war over there. Take a day off.
@Jonathan Moloney: none of those premtively pardoned has been charged with anything, nor should they be. With a wannabe dictator in power, who has promised revenge on those who’ve disagreed with him over the years, we are not in normal times. Biden was right to do this.
@Jonathan Moloney: Tell me you’re American pretending to be Irish without telling me.
@Dermot Blaine: how could they be charged with a preemptive pardon? You understand preemptive ya?
Farage and McGregor to be in attendance. If ever the phrase “say no more” applies, it is here. Shmucks in Shmuckville…
@ecrowley ecrowley: McGregor and trump can swap fleas
“The pardon carries an imputation of guilt and that acceptance carries a confession of guilt” – Burdock v United States. Thank you Anthony Fauci for admitting that you are a guilty individual who bares responsibility for helping to create Covid-19 in the Wuhan Institute of Virology through your gain of function research. He killed tens of thousands of people who were suffering from AIDS by putting them on AZT which he knew wasn’t working but continued to tout it anyway even though it directly causes liver failure. He repeatedly pushed for lockdowns which we know now didn’t work and harmed kids and their mental abilities in so many ways. The fact that he tortured and killed thousands of animals as well in his sick experiments was disgusting. There’s a special place in Hell for Fauci.
@William Jennings: give him your tinfoil hat
@Ciaran Murphy: Typical ad hominem attack from absolute planks like yourself. You haven’t provided any sort of coherent response to the points that I made. Is that because you know I’m right?
The US’s first openly gay president must be raging with Biden for doing this!
Nice to see the Trumps being welcomed into the White House by the Bidens today. They didn’t run off like spoiled, petulant children like the Trumps did four years ago.
@Jack Hayes: you are missing the obvious difference and this is where things where wrong with America the bidans are told to be there today trump does not get told, the world be safer now, enjoy that much at least, the anti trump thing is old people woke up, eventually.
Americans. Dimmest people on this planet.
@Philip Kennedy: oh I don’t know, what about the MAGRATS who post on here?
@JoeJoe Kilbride: them too.
Well Trump is a convicted s-x offender a criminal
@Anthony Ross: No he’s not, but you lot can’t get that in to your demented skulls.
@Anthony Ross: he isn’t a convicted sex offender but he has a criminal conviction for something else. Not sure what there have been so many cases against him… Joke of a man..
@Anthony Ross:
He us also a half wit.delusional,and deranged
FJB
Reminds me of back to the future when mj fox arrived to yr when biff was president
@Derek O Gorman: that’s a bit of a harsh comparison (harsh on Biff, I mean)
Fauci should be up in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
They should be protected. Who shouldn’t? The January 6-ers etc. or Trump, the convicted felon. So many people’s minds are broken or they just can’t remember his last term in office. The mind boggles. Or maybe they’re into having a lying, misogynistic, racist, homophonic sx pest in office …
@Jack Hayes: Protected from what? Conviction for their crimes I assume. What was wrong with his last term in office? Please elaborate.
Just goes to show the world we live in. Government officials can commit crimes while in office and then just give e our pardons like candy when the money train is up. If your average Joe done this we would get life imprisonment
Gangsters all!!
Only the guilty need pardoning.
@Ulick: This is a preemptive pardon. Probably because the nutter Trump has made another nutter Joe Kennedy Secretary of Health. In fact Trump seems to pick lots of nutters to surround himself with, Musk who has claimed to be a 300,000 year alien. You couldn’t make it up.
It’s hilarious all the Americans pretending to be Irish without telling the fake accounts here. Have you all not trump coins to be buying. Amazing you’ve the time to be on Irish news sites pretending to be Irish people
I sometimes agree with what Farage has to say but now that he is associated with a little irish thug I’ll have to give him a complete miss. Is this another ominous sign of the trump effect? Looks like it. Sad.
The Trump loving anti vaccine low eye queue numbskulls are out in force tonight!
@Derek Moran: equally matched by the gullible who can’t think for themselves
@Alex: ah yes medical science the scourge of humanity
@Derek Moran:
Okay genius. It’s not just anti vaccine. Maybe you should care about where COVID came from. The reason he needs a preemptive pardon is because he was responsible for funding research at the Wuhan institute where the virus was created and constantly denied any knowledge of it. He lied to Congress numerous times while millions were dying around the world.
Despite his claims to the contrary, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, knew by January 2020 that his agency was funding gain-of-function research of novel coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.
Educate yourself and open your closed mind.
@Ulick: spot on
@Robert: I listened to many medical experts they where correct in explaining why I shouldn’t get this experimental mRNA jab because it hasnt had long term testing and would be of no benefit to a young healthy person, it had no affect on transmission it simply did nothing for me other than potential harm.
Why would you expect me to follow the herd and just blindly accept corporate oligarchs have are best interests at heart now all of a sudden??
Joe exotic shafted again.
The whole Biden Crime Syndicate have been pardoned preemptively.
I wonder how much Joe charged them for that?
@Ulick: you’re an embarrassment
Beyond belief that “Biden” gets to preemptively pardon the head of NSAID who funded and then managed the biggest public health disaster in history.
Fauci is akin to a “made man” in mafia terms.
He has lied about gain of function research under oath but hasn’t been accused of a crime yet.
If he is guilty of any crime he should be investigated without bias.
The message this sends is that there is no justice system if you’re part of the system.
Let’s see if Peter Daszak takes the hit.
It seems that to be as divisive as possible is the order of the day from both sides.
Why TF was trump going after his siblings! Jesus H Christ, what is wrong with him? Once trump has had his full of locking politicians and their families away, he’ll start on ordinary US citizens, if they dare to question him and his in sane policies.
@Fiona: How slimy is that, with 19 minutes left in his terrible presidency he pardons his whole family. Pardons for what? Trump said he was not going after them. Biden and the Democrats have been going after Trump for eight years now with fake BS charges. But that’s okay with you. Your TDS is showing.
@Ulick: he actually had a hugely successful administration. And it’s easy to prove as facts are facts. Booming economy handed over to a multiple sexual assaulter of women and convicted felon.
The Biden crime family sorted now .
Well when you spend four years vilifying and harassing somebody and that person then gets in a position of authority it’s only natural to protect yourself, Sleepy Joe just did it the deceitful and cowardly way that is in his nature. A complete ponse!
have your say