I guess it’s down to how they apply the conditional in that statement. Because obviously, if they buy into the “‘trespassing’ is violence” line that the left has been taking, that’s bad. If they follow this up by saying “oh, after some review, it turns out none of them committed violence,” that’s great. It makes it harder for the left to individually attack the people that they pardon, or to use those pardons politically.

Remember, both for political narrative and for the sake of the victims themselves, it’s not enough to pardon and forget. They really have to hammer that none of these people have done anything that should even need to be pardoned. Sure, you’re welcome to doom and say “OMG Vance won’t guarantee pardoning everyone!”—and I’ll admit there is a chance that they fumble it—but it’s also important to make statements like this if you’re trying to make it clear that you’re not just blindly pardoning a bunch of violent rioters because they’re on your side.

I guess it’s down to how they apply the conditional in that statement. Because obviously, if they buy into the “‘trespassing’ is violence” line that the left has been taking, that’s bad. If they follow this up by saying “oh, after some review, it turns out none of them committed violence,” that’s great. It makes it harder for the left to individually attack the people that they pardon, or to use those pardons politically.