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WATCH: Soldier Pardoned By Trump: ‘I Love You, Sir. You’re Awesome … You Need More People Watching Your Back’

   DailyWire.com
Lorance
Courtesy of Fox News

On Monday, Army First Lt. Clint Lorance, 34, who served six years in prison after being sentenced to 19 years for ordering troops to open fire on three local men riding motorcycles in Afghanistan in July 2012, appeared on Fox & Friends after President Trump granted him clemency on Friday. Asked if he had a message for Trump, Lorance responded, “I love you, sir. You’re awesome. I’ll say this, Mr. President, I wish you had a better team around you. You need more people watching your back.”

Asked about former Vice President Joe Biden’s strident criticism of the president for granting clemency to three American soldiers, Lorance responded, “With all due respect to the former vice president, that seems to be a partisan answer; that seems to be something that he’s just toeing the party line on … he’s doing what he thinks his donors and the people who are signing his paycheck are expecting him to do. I think if you were to sit down with him, face-to-face, I think he’d have an issue saying that, face-to-face.”

The White House explained the pardon, writing, “In early July 2012, only days after Lieutenant Lorance had taken command of his platoon in one of the most dangerous battle zones in Afghanistan, a motorcycle with three men approached him and his men with unusual speed. Under difficult circumstances and prioritizing the lives of American troops, Lorance ordered his men to engage, and two of the three men were killed.”

On Fox & Friends, after noting the history of presidents and their involvement with court-martials, Lorance continued:

Lorance: What President Trump did is not unprecedented, but to me it’s life-changing; to my family, it’s life-changing; to our military, it’s life-changing. And it’s just something that — I told Hunt County, because darn near the whole county was there …

Host Steve Doocy: That’s right. I saw the video.

Lorance: I told Hunt County, I said, “A soldier, a service member who knows that their commanders love them will go to the gates of Hell for their country and knock them down.” And so I think that that’s extremely important. You know that, sir, being in the military yourself.” And anybody who’s not part of the senior Pentagon brass will tell you the same thing. I think that folks who start putting stars on their collar, anybody that’s got to be confirmed by the Senate for a promotion, they’re no longer a soldier. They’re a politician, and so I think they lose some of their values. They certainly lose a lot of their respect from their subordinates when they do what they did to me, which was throw me under the bus.

Now, not to sound like a victim or anything, cause I’m not. I’m happy. I’m actually proud of everything that happened to me because it turned me into a better person; it gave me an opportunity to get closer to this country. Little tiny towns are all over the place; they’re packed full of awesome people. Going through something like that, they reach out to you through the mail. It really reminds you of how amazing this country is that we live in.  I can’t tell you enough how I appreciate President Trump and Vice President Pence; I love ‘em; they’re awesome. They’re great people.

Host Ainsley Earhardt: You were sentenced to 19 years; you were six years into your sentence when you got this pardon. And the timing is perfect, because next week is Thanksgiving. If the president is watching, what do you want to say to him?

Lorance: I love you, sir. You’re awesome. I’ll say this, Mr. President, I wish you had a better team around you. You need more people watching your back. And I think you don’t have a lot of that. And that is absolutely unfortunate. And that infuriates me to no end. The American people elected you. My thing is, if you’re working in the White House or if you’re working in the United States government and you don’t agree with something the president does, then go home.

Lorance was asked about Joe Biden’s criticism of Trump for pardoning the three soldiers in which Biden tweeted, “Trump’s intervention in the American military justice system to pardon service members accused or convicted of war crimes betrays the rule of law, the values that make our country exceptional & the men and women who wear the uniform honorably. He is not fit to command our troops.”

 

Lorance responded, “Well, I would say, with all due respect to the former vice-president, that seems to be a partisan answer; that seems to be something that he’s just toeing the party line on. I highly doubt the vice president, being a man with a son in the military like he had, I highly doubt that he really believes that … he’s doing what he thinks his donors and the people who are signing his paycheck are expecting him to do. I think if you were to sit down with him, face-to-face, I think he’d have an issue saying that, face-to-face.”

Video below:

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