Obama’s midnight clemency exposes Democrats’ double standard

Home Opinion Obama’s midnight clemency exposes Democrats’ double standard
Obama’s midnight clemency exposes Democrats’ double standard
Bradley Manning / Wikimedia Commons

In his final hours as president, Obama exposed the fallacious justice by which liberals operate.

Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who was convicted of espionage for leaking over 700,000 classified documents to Wikileaks, had her 35-year sentence commuted.  After serving seven years behind bars, Obama said he felt “justice has been served” and set her release for this May.

The hypocrisy of this clemency, compared with the Democrats newly restored outrage at the DNC hacker, is stunning.

Obama announced this grant of clemency after weeks of Democrats complaining of the injustice inflicted on them by the alleged “Russian hacking” of the 2016 election. There is no question of a crime committed. The thief responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Clinton adviser John Podesta’s emails would certainly see the inside of a jail cell. So, why does Obama feel Manning’s case is different?

Manning’s crimes compromised America’s national security and placed the lives of her fellow servicemen in danger. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton’s comments highlight the magnitude of Manning’s crimes against the military where the senator was serving as an army officer. “When I was leading soldiers in Afghanistan, Private Manning was undermining us by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks.” He continues, “I don’t understand why the president would feel special compassion for someone who endangered the lives of our troops, diplomats, intelligence officers, and allies. We ought not treat a traitor like a martyr.”

In contrast, the DNC hacker did not put anyone’s life in danger, no national secrets or assets were compromised, and their actions can’t be proved to have changed a single vote in the election. By celebrating Manning’s release are liberals signaling that the DNC hacker should be granted clemency as well? No, that can’t be right.

It is difficult to understand why this leaker is suddenly worthy of “special compassion” from liberals; that is, until her transgender status is taken into account. She was Bradley Manning when she gave classified documents containing the “Iraq war logs”, “Afgan War Diary”, and over 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. This made Julian Assange’s group a household name and was most likely the inspiration for Edward Snowden’s leak three years later. Bradley became Chelsea while in prison and the Army recently agreed to pay for gender reassignment surgery after two suicide attempts last year.

The transgender community has repeatedly called for her release, saying her imprisonment at an all-men’s penitentiary is in violation of her rights. When Obama announced he was commuting Manning’s sentence, the transgender community erupted in celebration. Human rights researcher Adam Frankel wrote in The Hill that the commutation was a “momentous occasion” for the rights of transgender people. But after the Democrats aimed their wrath at the DNC hacker, Manning’s clemency sends a dangerous message.

This message sent by Obama is that actual espionage by demographic allies of the left will be forgiven, but embarrassing the president’s party and his chosen successor is a high crime against democracy. Letting off people who deliberately exposed our nation’s secrets when they had a obligation to protect them is always a bad idea. Doing so for apparently personal and political reasons compounds the offense.

The American people could simply overlook this if it was an isolated event, but it’s not. The other notable commutation was Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera. In the 1970s, Rivera led a violent but futile struggle to win independence for Puerto Rico by carrying out more than 120 bombings at banks, government offices and military facilities that killed Americans. He has expressed no remorse for his actions and actually had additional years added to his sentence for coordinating a failed escape plan with his followers.

Again, it is difficult to understand why liberals have sympathy for Lopez Rivera until surveying the many celebrities and activist like Lin-Manuel Miranda, South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Senator Bernie Sanders who see him as a martyr for liberal causes. Sanders called him “one of the longest-serving political prisoners in history — 34 years, longer than Nelson Mandela.” Releasing unrepentant criminals might make liberals feel good for showing mercy to their friends but only at a high cost to society.

There is no justice in Obama’s midnight pardoning of individuals like Manning and Lopez Rivera who happen to fit the demographic of progressive political interest groups. The special pleading of liberals calling for mercy upon their friends but punishment for their enemies is nothing short than a double standard.

Without a doubt these last acts of Obama’s presidency constituted a raw and authentic display of liberal’s distorted sense of justice.
Mr. Lee is a junior studying politics and journalism.