The insurrection of the Capitol on January 6th of last year will historically live in infamy, with frightening footage of the violent rioters still being investigated to this day. Unsurprisingly, former President Donald J. Trump (who many, including prominent Republicans, argue instigated and encouraged the harrowing attack) suggested at a January 29th campaign rally in Conroe, Texas that he will pardon the rioters charged in connection if he runs for president again and is re-elected.
“If I run and I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly,” he said to an audience (about those who broke into the Capitol building, vandalized it, looted historical items from it and injured police officers and others). “We will treat them fairly, and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”
In the past, Washington Post notes, Trump has repeatedly criticized the prosecution of people who violently stormed the Capitol to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president. This new announcement is the first time he has hinted or mentioned pardoning the rioters. (Some of those involved in the riot wanted a pardon from Trump before he left office 14 days later, but none were granted).
View this post on Instagram
As the investigation into the insurrection continues, authorities have arrested and charged more than 700 people. In January, the Justice Department charged Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group, and 10 other members of the group with seditious conspiracy, as the Post writes, the most serious charges levied as part of the department’s investigation.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) was one of several notable Republicans who denounced Trump’s comments. Graham was featured in an interview with CBS News’s “Face the Nation” the following day, and said that the former president suggesting clemency for those accused in the Capitol riot was “inappropriate.”
“I don’t want to reinforce that defiling the Capitol was okay,” said Graham on the show. The senator said he hopes that people who stormed the Capitol “go to jail and get the book thrown at them, because they deserve it.”
View this post on Instagram
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) said on ABC News’s “This Week” that the former president should not have “made that pledge to do pardons.” Collins, one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump on an impeachment charge of inciting the insurrection, added, “We should let the judicial process proceed.” She also said she she would be “very unlikely” to support Trump if he ran again in 2024.
And that’s not all. When CNN’s Dana Bash asked New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) if he believed the rioters should receive pardons, he replied, “Oh my goodness, no.” He continued, saying those responsible for “the assault on the U.S. Capitol have to be held accountable.”
View this post on Instagram
Naturally, Trump has spoken out against Graham in an interview with Newsmax that aired on February 1st. He called the South Carolina senator a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only” before once again defending the violent January 6th rioters as “patriots,” and then saying the senator “doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about” after Graham said that Trump’s idea of pardoning violent rioters was “inappropriate.”
