A: how come Dianne Feinstein gets a pass having a Chinese spy on her payroll?
B: She gets a pass cuz she was ignorant as hell.
I saw this exchange from a comment of this article. What does "get a pass" truly mean in this context? I looked it up and it seem not to be a set.
It means that she can be excused from the restrictions that are placed on others—that an exception is made in her case.
The meaning likely comes from the high school related term hall pass:
[Merriam-Webster]
US
: a card that shows that a student has permission to be out of class during class time
The term was generally shortened to just pass.
I don't believe it's commonly used in a high school context anymore, but it's still worked its way into regular use such as in your example.
