America's Talking - Inside Look: On the Streets of Washington D.C. For the Inauguration

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

(The Center Square) – As President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. President on Monday, his supporters made a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to show their support. The Center Square joined them in the blistering cold streets of the nation’s capital to get a sense of what Trump’s base is hoping for in this administration. Per conversations on inauguration day, one theme rang loud and clear: securing the southern border.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_b5a04eec-d764-11ef-8ec9-0fa6f1a6efef.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. We are recording this on Friday, January 24th. Donald Trump is once again President of the United States after taking the oath of office on Monday. Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, you were there in Washington, D.C., and talked to several Trump supporters. I know things were a bit different this time because many of the inauguration ceremonies were moved inside due to the frigid cold, which had capacity issues. But what was the atmosphere like?

Yeah, yeah, Dan, I was there. I was on the streets of Washington, D.C. for the big day. Of course, a federal holiday. So the city was shut down in many respects, but it was definitely still a buzz and busy with Trump supporters who had made the pilgrimage to D.C. for the second inauguration of Trump, now 47th U.S. President. As for the vibe, what was the feeling, I think that people are excited. You know, I talked to a lot of people. I interviewed some of them on video, those interviews you can see on the senator at

square.com. But I think everyone really liked the focus and determination of Trump. I think that was what really stood out to me as a theme. You know, it seemed like last time around that Trump was bombastic. was fun. He didn't care what people thought. This time around, people liked that he was laser-focused. And, you know, he really began to show that in the day with his flurry of, ended up being something like 42 executive orders on date one or something. But people liked that he was, you know, talking about taking back the Panama Canal. They're like, good. We need, they just wanted that aggressive Trump. They wanted him laser-focused. They wanted him to not, basically have no mercy, to not delay, don't procrastinate.

Do everything you want to do and do it as fast as possible and don't hold back. That was the energy you got from everyone. As far as what issues came up, you know, I asked people what issue was important to them. And the most common one was the southern border. People were very concerned about the crisis of the southern border. They're very concerned about illegal immigration. And I would say the second issue that I heard about Dan was transgenderism, you know, transgender girls playing at sports.

You know, that issue has been an ongoing one. And many of the Trump supporters I wanted, they were tired of this issue. They wanted Trump to deal with it. And we don't have to go into all of it. But he did release an executive order to that effect on day one. Yeah, as you said, he issued dozens and dozens of his executive orders on day one. Not enough time to get into all of them in this segment. We're going to spend a second segment talking about some of those executive orders.

Casey, on his way out of office, the man that Trump replaced, now former President Joe Biden, issued several preemptive pardons to his brother and other family members to Dr. Anthony Fauci, to members of the January 6th committee, including Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney. And hours later in the day, Trump pardoned 1,500 people either convicted of or charged with crimes related to the January 6th, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. But let's start with Biden's pardons. What are they about and what do they say about President Biden himself? Yeah, I mean, they are, you know, Biden has called them a preemptive pardons.

They're really unprecedented. I'm very curious how they would hold up in court. You know, you can't, I mean, it's really uncharted territory, Dan, to say that someone is innocent of all crimes over a 10-year period. I mean, what's next? You know, this person is innocent for life for anything they may do in the future. There's got to be a limit to what a pardon is. I mean, traditionally a pardon is this person committed this crime and I'm pardoning them. And they can go free. But we're really pushing the limits of a pardon. And so that's what Biden is doing here. He's pushing the limits, issuing preemptive pardons for all of Trump's perceived enemies. Now, in defense of these pardons, Trump has kind of hinted at maybe some of these people should go to jail. For instance, the January 6th committee, the lawmakers on that committee are accused of destroying evidence. And I think there is, you know, evidence that they've done that. It's an allegation. They've not been found guilty. You know, there needs to be an investigation to figure that out. But,

there's definitely evidence that there was some funny business going on. And of course, conservatives have been calling for years for putting Anthony Fauci in jail. That's no secret if you're on, you know, X for more than five minutes. So I think that because of his role in COVID and, you know, allegations against him about maybe the vaccines and his history of doing research that may have led to the creation of COVID-19 in the first place, all those things. Yeah. And of course, congressional Republicans have been investigating, for the past four years, the Biden family's international business dealings saying the Biden family, you know, from back when Joe Biden was vice president, I used his influence overseas to make the family tons of money. That's right. Yeah. And there's been extensive investigations into that. You know, Trump commented on that, though, and he said, the funny thing is Biden did not pardon himself. And he's right at the center of all this. So, you know, last time, despite his campaign pledges, Trump showed restraint and did not prosecute Hillary Clinton, although actually the case against Hillary Clinton was more open and shut, I think, or a stronger case than the one they even have against President Joe Biden, because with Biden, everything was kind of removed or done through a family member. So he had this sort of wall of protection around him because everything was done by someone near him, but not usually him himself. So he could claim plausible deniability. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of questionable things going on here.

your new territory for pardons. Biden and its allies have said, well, this is just because Trump is so, you know, vengeful and tyrannical and possibly fascist that we need to protect ourselves. But it is convenient when your accusations against your political opponent allow you to issue pardons for your whole family and all your friends. And Trump himself took took some criticism for his pardoning of 1,500 people charged with or even convicted of storing the U.S. Capitol. four years ago. Final thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, the criticism, the biggest criticism against Trump is that he did a blanket pardon, I think, you know, because all these 1,500 people are not

created equal by any means. I mean, many of them just kind of walked in through an open door and looked around and that was it. Some people actually attacked police officers or did, you know, vandalism. And they're all kind of being forgiven in one broad sweep. I think Trump's argument in his allies is these people have suffered enough. It's a political prosecution. And by the way, all the Black Lives Matter protesters who burned down, you know, half a dozen cities in the summer of 2020. Almost none of them went to jail, even though that was over several months and plenty of vandalism was done there. So maybe it's just time to move on, time to heal. These people have, you know, been financially ruined paying for lawyers.

They've spent time in jail. Let's move on. That's the Trump team argument. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with all things presidential transition and more at the Center Square. com.