Ummmm, Trump could have reversed the pardon for Dr. Fauci, and had until May 11 to do so. He never did. But hey, let's go ahead and put all the blame on Biden. Biden, as I recall, did NOT give Fauci a Presidential Medal of Honor, Trump did. Sick of the blaming of only one side, sick of exonerating one guy just because he is not Biden. Wake up.
Thank you for reading carefully enough to push back. That matters to me, and you deserve a real answer to each part of what you raised.
On the pardon and the May 11 date. I want to be careful here because the legal mechanics matter. There is actually no constitutional pathway for one president to reverse another president’s pardon. The Article II pardon power has been held by federal courts for over 150 years to be final once issued. An 1869 ruling put it plainly: “when a pardon is complete, there is no power to revoke it.” When Trump tried to declare Biden’s pardons void in March 2025 by citing the autopen theory, constitutional law experts across the political spectrum, including in ABC, CBS, PBS, and the Hill, said the same thing. The president does not have that authority. The May 11 date you may be remembering is actually the statute of limitations that expired this week on Senator Rand Paul’s criminal referral over Fauci’s May 11, 2021 congressional testimony about gain of function research. That is a real and significant date. It just is not a pardon reversal window. Two different legal issues.
On the medal. You are right, and I should have said so in the piece. Trump did give Fauci a presidential honor on his last day in office, January 19, 2021. It was a Presidential Commendation for Operation Warp Speed, not the Medal of Freedom (that one came from George W. Bush in 2008 for HIV/AIDS work). And yes, Trump signed it. That is a fair criticism. Governor DeSantis raised it throughout the 2024 primary and called it a gut punch to Americans harmed by the lockdowns. He was right to. I agree with you on that one.
Now I want to add something you did not raise but that I think belongs in this conversation, because you are pushing me to be fair across the board and I want to honor that.
Trump was operating with limited information at the time he made his Covid decisions. He closed the borders to China on January 31, 2020, which was the day after the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency. He took heat for it. Joe Biden, the next day, tweeted that Trump had a “record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the restrictions “immoral.” In May 2020, Biden specifically called the restrictions “nakedly xenophobic.” Trump made an early call, took intense political and media criticism for it, and history has been kinder to that decision than the people criticizing him were at the moment. Ironically, the Biden administration imposed similar Covid test restrictions on travelers from China in December 2022.
Trump also commended Fauci. Trump also defended the vaccines through 2021 and beyond. He has a complicated Covid record, and so does Biden, and so does Congress, and so do the agencies. You and I are both better served by holding all of that in view at the same time.
What I am committed to in this piece, and in every piece I write, is following the facts where they go. The Morens indictment is a federal grand jury alleging that a specific senior federal advisor committed specific federal crimes related to hiding records. The Biden pardon is the specific legal mechanism that keeps Fauci out of this specific case. Those are facts. They sit alongside other facts, including the ones you raised and the ones I just added.
You are not wrong to be tired of “blame one side” coverage. I am tired of it too. That is part of why I started Courage and Caffeine.
Thank you for the info about specific details that I had gotten wrong (like what award Fauci got). I still consider Trump the imposer of lockdowns, etc. He didn't end the Covid Emergency Act when he left office, and has never apologized for anything he did wrong re: Covid, not even the vaccines. He could have, during his 2024 campaign told Americans that he would create a compensation fund for all of those hurt by his covid policies and by the jab. Instead, he had the CEO of Johnson and Johnson got on stage with him at one of his rallies, blamed the "left" for why he didn't arrest Fauci, and has, to this day, refused to publicly acknowledge the devastation his policies and the jab have wrought on society. He has put Kennedy in a corner, even forbidding him to go on any network TV except Fox; Susie Wiles literally had an agency that lobbied for Pfizer and GAVI; his choice of Surgeon General has been dastardly, the day after he took office he announced the Project Stargate to mass produce mRNA vaccines, etc. Now, he forced out Marty Makary because pharma industry insiders were unhappy with him and because he didn't want to approve flavored vapes (and he is RIGHT not to want to approve them). Why can't he appoint good people? Why not Dr. Ladapo for Surgeon General, or Dr. Malone, or any other doctor from the freedom movement? I am sorry, but I am disgusted with this adminstration. Kennedy was our last hope.
Powerful post. thank you. Praying it doesn't end with just this one individual.
Ummmm, Trump could have reversed the pardon for Dr. Fauci, and had until May 11 to do so. He never did. But hey, let's go ahead and put all the blame on Biden. Biden, as I recall, did NOT give Fauci a Presidential Medal of Honor, Trump did. Sick of the blaming of only one side, sick of exonerating one guy just because he is not Biden. Wake up.
Thank you for reading carefully enough to push back. That matters to me, and you deserve a real answer to each part of what you raised.
On the pardon and the May 11 date. I want to be careful here because the legal mechanics matter. There is actually no constitutional pathway for one president to reverse another president’s pardon. The Article II pardon power has been held by federal courts for over 150 years to be final once issued. An 1869 ruling put it plainly: “when a pardon is complete, there is no power to revoke it.” When Trump tried to declare Biden’s pardons void in March 2025 by citing the autopen theory, constitutional law experts across the political spectrum, including in ABC, CBS, PBS, and the Hill, said the same thing. The president does not have that authority. The May 11 date you may be remembering is actually the statute of limitations that expired this week on Senator Rand Paul’s criminal referral over Fauci’s May 11, 2021 congressional testimony about gain of function research. That is a real and significant date. It just is not a pardon reversal window. Two different legal issues.
On the medal. You are right, and I should have said so in the piece. Trump did give Fauci a presidential honor on his last day in office, January 19, 2021. It was a Presidential Commendation for Operation Warp Speed, not the Medal of Freedom (that one came from George W. Bush in 2008 for HIV/AIDS work). And yes, Trump signed it. That is a fair criticism. Governor DeSantis raised it throughout the 2024 primary and called it a gut punch to Americans harmed by the lockdowns. He was right to. I agree with you on that one.
Now I want to add something you did not raise but that I think belongs in this conversation, because you are pushing me to be fair across the board and I want to honor that.
Trump was operating with limited information at the time he made his Covid decisions. He closed the borders to China on January 31, 2020, which was the day after the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency. He took heat for it. Joe Biden, the next day, tweeted that Trump had a “record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the restrictions “immoral.” In May 2020, Biden specifically called the restrictions “nakedly xenophobic.” Trump made an early call, took intense political and media criticism for it, and history has been kinder to that decision than the people criticizing him were at the moment. Ironically, the Biden administration imposed similar Covid test restrictions on travelers from China in December 2022.
Trump also commended Fauci. Trump also defended the vaccines through 2021 and beyond. He has a complicated Covid record, and so does Biden, and so does Congress, and so do the agencies. You and I are both better served by holding all of that in view at the same time.
What I am committed to in this piece, and in every piece I write, is following the facts where they go. The Morens indictment is a federal grand jury alleging that a specific senior federal advisor committed specific federal crimes related to hiding records. The Biden pardon is the specific legal mechanism that keeps Fauci out of this specific case. Those are facts. They sit alongside other facts, including the ones you raised and the ones I just added.
You are not wrong to be tired of “blame one side” coverage. I am tired of it too. That is part of why I started Courage and Caffeine.
Thank you for the info about specific details that I had gotten wrong (like what award Fauci got). I still consider Trump the imposer of lockdowns, etc. He didn't end the Covid Emergency Act when he left office, and has never apologized for anything he did wrong re: Covid, not even the vaccines. He could have, during his 2024 campaign told Americans that he would create a compensation fund for all of those hurt by his covid policies and by the jab. Instead, he had the CEO of Johnson and Johnson got on stage with him at one of his rallies, blamed the "left" for why he didn't arrest Fauci, and has, to this day, refused to publicly acknowledge the devastation his policies and the jab have wrought on society. He has put Kennedy in a corner, even forbidding him to go on any network TV except Fox; Susie Wiles literally had an agency that lobbied for Pfizer and GAVI; his choice of Surgeon General has been dastardly, the day after he took office he announced the Project Stargate to mass produce mRNA vaccines, etc. Now, he forced out Marty Makary because pharma industry insiders were unhappy with him and because he didn't want to approve flavored vapes (and he is RIGHT not to want to approve them). Why can't he appoint good people? Why not Dr. Ladapo for Surgeon General, or Dr. Malone, or any other doctor from the freedom movement? I am sorry, but I am disgusted with this adminstration. Kennedy was our last hope.