Trump wants to take his war criminal buddies on the campaign trail
His supporters will love this.
And the leadership of the Republican Party has already implicitly sign on.
Recall that they were the torture party when Dick Cheney - er, GW Bush - was president.
Trump did not start that.
Cheney went there right away, and a lot of the country, and especially the GOP, went there with him.
Trump last week pardoned both Lorance and Golsteyn.
Lorance was serving a 19-year prison sentence for firing on unarmed civilians in Afghanistan, killing two; Golsteyn was charged last year with killing an Afghan bomb maker and burying the remains.
Conservatives have rallied around the pair, suggesting they were unfairly punished for decisions made in the heat of battle, while critics, including some military members and veterans, have suggested the pardons are a slap in the face to those who have served honorably and give soldiers carte blanche to commit heinous acts.
In perhaps his most contentious intervention in recent days, Trump ousted Navy Secretary Richard Spencer to protect Gallagher, who appeared poised to lose his Trident pin following his conviction this year of posing for a photograph with the corpse of an ISIS detainee he allegedly killed.
He’d been acquitted of more serious offenses, including murder, but was still facing repercussions in the SEALs.
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