President Biden presented Presidential Medal of Freedom

Re “Hillary Clinton among 19 to get America’s highest civilian honor” (Jan. 5):

As a deplorable, I object to Hillary’s having gotten a participation trophy. George Soros? Anna Wintour? Michelle Yeoh, whoever that is?

MLK, Jr., yes. Maya Angelou, OK, Mother Teresa, yes. Denzel Washington, yes for having stayed in his first and only marriage all these years. It’s quite a dog and pony show.

— Mary Emily Smiley, Lawndale

Jan. 6

Re “Some Jan. 6 pardons actually make sense” (Dec. 29):

Donald Trump’s pardon and investigation of the supposed Jan. 6 insurrectionists should prove quite fascinating. The White House’s perpetually recorded communications will in all probability shed some light as to who President Trump and the FBI apprised several days in advance of the forthcoming incident.

Speaker Pelosi and Mayor Bowser having respective obligations for the security of federal and DC properties may have intentionally declined National Guard protection.

Did the chairperson of the Jan. 6 committee disallow certain requests as irrelevant for the defendants? If they are charged with dereliction of duty, would their prosecution be considered revenge or justice and would they be eligible for pardon?

— John R. Waters, Lake Forest

The mainstream media

Thank you for your editorial of Dec. 29, “Biden’s mental deterioration should’ve been bigger scandal.” You criticized the mainstream media for chastising those who called attention to President Biden’s cognitive decline.

The same was also true regarding the origins of COVID, the Hunter Biden laptop, and a long list of other stories that are well known to those of us who get our news from sources besides The New York Times and the AP.

This newspaper should consider itself “mainstream media” since the national stories it prints are sourced from the NYT and AP. I hope that you will consider adding some other sources that lean right such as the New York Post, Breitbart News and the Epoch Times. Such diversity in reporting would help reduce fake news and late news.

— David Chandler, Highland