Democrat Mark Kelly’s Comments on Pardons Come Back to Haunt Him

While former President Joe Biden left office a little more than a week ago, the particularly controversial pardons from his last few days, or even minutes left in office, in some cases, have really come back to haunt his fellow Democrats and throw the party further into disarray. We're just now finding out how egregious some of these pardons really have been, like the one handed out to Adrian Peeler, 48.

Whoever was in charge of those pardons decided to let Peeler slip through under the guise of the 2,500 drug commutations that were doled out, though it was said that they applied to "non-violent drug offenses." Peeler, however, executed a mother and her 8-year-old son, a move that outraged at least one Democrat, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

On the other hand, among those Democrats who haven't exactly expressed such outrage includes Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who has a rather selective sense of disappointment in presidential pardons. Last Tuesday, he recorded a video and shared it to his official X account, claiming it was "a sad day for our country" that President Donald Trump pardoned January 6 defendants, just as he said he would.

Kelly also made it a point to stress how he was the son of two police officers with such a message and that "cops are just in my family." While he mentioned he had "just been thinking about these pardons," he made clear he was only speaking about Trump and those to do with January 6 defendants. "And to think how outrageous, I mean, this is," as he ranted and raved against January 6 defendants, even claiming they "did not have to pay a price for those crimes and have been released."

For all of his sighing and lamenting, Kelly certainly got a few points wrong there. Not only did many January 6 defendants indeed "have to pay a price," but the U.S. Supreme Court found last June that the government may have cast too wide a net in charging people. Others were kept in deplorable conditions, and others never even had a trial. Further, they weren't simply "released," although Trump's pardon meant they should have, as many local authorities took their time in releasing such prisoners.

There's been no other video message or any kind of post over Kelly's X accounts about the pardon that Peeler received.

As we've covered, Biden's pardons have put his fellow Democrats in disarray in other ways, especially when it comes to the preemptive pardons for General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of the January 6 select committee, which were issued hours before Trump took office for his second term. That wasn't all, though, as mere minutes before Trump's inauguration last Monday, Biden also issued preemptive pardons for his family members.

Many Democrats, including Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, while expressing displeasure over the January 6 pardons Trump issued, were still at odds with Biden's pardons for his family members, given the narrative it created.

Even with the days of the Biden-Harris administration behind us, those from the White House are still speaking up about such pardons, though to criticize those issued by Trump. Former Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates, one of the chief gaslighters, is among them, sharing coverage from The Daily Beast, a particularly leftist outlet, when it comes to details about some of the January 6 defendants.

In the less than 24 hours since Bates' post has been up, countless replies have mentioned Peeler, while another user also brought up another man pardoned by Biden who had faced convictions of child pornography.