Is Trump defensible?

To the editor:

In the Jan. 8 edition of the Record, a new subscriber from Florida questioned his new Kansas neighbors why 75% of the Marion County voters supported Donald Trump for president.

Three weeks have passed and not a single one of the many Trump supporters in Marion County has bothered to answer the question posed.

Since the letter was published, Trump was inaugurated and one of his first actions was to pardon or commune sentences of more than 1,500 people convicted of crimes around the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Some of those pardoned were convicted of violent assault on police officers trying to defend the Capitol grounds.

All of us with television sets have seen video of the violent mob that went to the Capitol that day with Trump’s urging.

A quick query to the offices of legislators representing Marion County in Washington reveals that Senator Jerry Moran and Congressman Derrick Schmidt think Trump’s pardons were wrong and send a bad message to law enforcement. Senator Roger Marshall has yet to make any statements one way or the other.

I lived in Marion County from 1961 until 2011. I attended public schools, worked several different jobs, raised a family, owned a farm, and was active in community affairs.

I cannot believe that the citizens of Marion County would find the pardoning of people convicted of assaulting police an acceptable use of presidential power.

Maybe someone in the group of Trump supporters could find time to answer the questions from Florida and give a justification for the pardons and the many executive actions since Trump became president again.

Harry E. Bennett
Madison, Wisconsin