By now, you’re probably pretty familiar with how online election betting works and the kinds of wagers you can place.
You’re probably also aware that the most popular politician to bet on remains “former” President Donald Trump, as the news media continues to double down on that tired old Orange Man Bad™ hysteria.
The left can’t meme* but it sure can beat a dead horse. Or, we suppose, prop one up.
Which, incidentally, is a perfect segue into what this article’s all about: political props.
No, not children crying on stage after some disaster or a some small-town coffee shop cashier giving the POTUS an earful of sweet nothings on live television. Not those kinds of political props.
These kinds of political props.
You know the ones: Trump impeachment odds, Trump indictment odds, Trump arrest odds, Trump conviction odds, Trump…pardon odds?
Yes, Trump pardon odds. Because the word is, Slow Joe is thinking about – or, rather, his handlers are thinking about – the prospect of pardoning Trump.
And that’s a pretty shrewd move.
Actually, it seems almost too shrewed, almost too perfect.
The fact that there aren’t any betting lines up yet about whether or not Biden will pardon Trump is more than a little baffling. This idea isn’t all that new, either, so sportsbooks like Bovada and BetOnline have certainly had time to push out some lines.
Hey, if these books can host Trump Speaker of the House odds for going on two years now, surely they can post odds on something that’s much less of a stretch.
But the idea is somewhat counterintuitive.
Why would Biden pardon Trump? The Democrats don’t want The Donald to run in 2024.
That’s why the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, after all. And now that they found a slew of [redacted] and [redacted] that prove beyond a reasonable [redacted] that Trump [redacted] and [redacted] in contravention of [redacted], it seems silly to just pardon the guy.
Sure, he’s the original Teflon Don, but after six years of trying, something’s bound to stick, right? Trump’s on the ropes, right? Wouldn’t a pardon be a pointless self-inflicted injury?
Aren’t Biden’s approval ratings low enough? Why would the left give the right such a massive olive branch, especially now that the Trumpster has overtaken DeSantis on the 2024 Presidential Election odds boards again?
Oh, you poor dear. Bless your heart.
Here’s why:
The FBI Trump raid was just more manufactured political drama.
Remember the Pee Pee Dossier™? Remember all that Locker Room Talk™? Remember Stormy Daniels™? Remember the Russian Election Meddling™? Remember those Xenophobic Travel Restrictions™? Remember Inject Clorox Into Your Veins™?
And remember how absolutely nothing came of any of these?
Nothing ever sticks because we all know there’s nothing there.
Well, that’s exactly the case with this Mar-a-Lago raid: There’s nothing Trump can be indicted for.
He’s not getting arrested, he’s not getting tried, he’s not getting convicted. There needs to be some sort of crime before any of that other stuff happens.
And that’s why “pardoning” Trump would be a brilliant move.
After all, if someone is pardoned, the implications are that that someone did something they needed to be pardoned for – that they did something illegal.
And interestingly, pardons can be issued preemptively. They can be issued before an arrest or a trial. Accusations of malfeasance aren’t even technically necessary.
Remember all that hoopla after The Insurrection™? Remember how all the talking heads on TV were warning America that Trump was going to pardon himself and his family and all his associates preemptively in a massive abuse of power and that the very foundation of democracy was at stake unless the entire Trump line was burned at the stake for the witches they are? (Okay, we made up that last bit, but the rest was blasting out over the airwaves ad nauseum).
The power of the pardon here would be for Biden to frame Trump as the criminal the mainstream media is accusing him of being.
Of course, Trump could simply refuse the pardon on the grounds that he committed no act for which a pardon was necessary, but that’s risky, too. The establishment doesn’t care about guilt or innocence, and it’s proven itself as capable of driving any narrative it wishes.
If Trump refuses, the current tenuous and haphazard frameup can simply go ahead with all speed.
On the other hand, it’s foolish to think Trump would be cornered by something as transparent and predictable as this Presidential pardon business. The “4D chess” meme is real, and 45 is still undefeated.
But that’s beside the point.
Just because the left can’t beat MAGA doesn’t mean it’s not going to keep trying, and Biden pardoning Trump would be a marketing masterstroke for a brand that’s aware it’s on the way out. It won’t save New Coke from getting reformulated (albeit now with corn syrup instead of cane sugar), but it would be an amusing final punch on the way down to the canvass.
*With the begrudging exception of Dark Brandon™. That’s honestly pretty funny, especially when juxtaposed with that unprecedently bizarre bit of political theater from last night.
