A former Republican lawyer said on Monday that President Donald Trump appears to be using his pardon power to "whitewash" crimes committed by people in his administration.
George Conway, who left the Republican Party during the first Trump administration, discussed Trump's recent pardons for people involved in the January 6 insurrection on a new episode of the "George Explains It All (To Sarah Longwell)" podcast that he co-hosts with the publisher of The Bulwark. Conway said he "gets worked up" over the pardons because they illustrate Trump's efforts to create a reality where "everything is the opposite of what it truly is."
"Everything is a lie," Conway said. "Everything has to adhere to the fantasy in the mind of Donald Trump, or else you're out."
"He's a criminal," Conway added, referring to Trump. "So, of course, he's going to rewrite history so that he didn't commit crimes and the people who were working for him didn't commit crimes, even though they were all criminals."
Conway noted that Trump's pardons drew a false equivalency between the January 6 insurrection, which Conway said fit the legal description of a "mob riot," and the protests against his immigration policies.
"In Trump World, a mob riot is a bunch of people in frog costumes or whatnot singing at ICE officers," Conway said.