Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday described President-elect Donald Trump’s menace to jail members of the House Jan. 6 Committee as “an outrageous assertion” and mentioned President Joe Biden ought to take into account pre-emptive pardons for committee members.
“This is what authoritarianism is all about. It’s what dictatorship is all about,” Sanders mentioned.
Asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” whether or not Biden ought to take into account pre-emptive pardons for committee members — seven House Democrats and two House Republicans, then-Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. — Sanders mentioned, “Well, I believe he would possibly wish to take into account that very significantly.”
Trump mentioned final week on “Meet the Press” that members of the committee, which was tasked with investigating that Jan. 6 assault, “should go to jail.”
He additionally mentioned he would search to pardon his supporters who had been convicted for his or her actions through the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, saying his supporters have “been in there for years, they usually’re in a grimy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
Over 1,500 defendants have been charged in relation to their actions on Jan. 6, and greater than 1,200 have been convicted or have pleaded responsible.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition staff didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about Sanders’ remarks.
Not all Republicans are on board with Trump’s plan.
In an interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker earlier Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a high Trump ally, plainly mentioned “no” when requested whether or not he agrees that members of the committee ought to go to jail.
After Trump’s feedback, committee members like Democrats Adam Schiff, of California, and Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, the committee chairman, blasted him.
Thompson instructed reporters on Capitol Hill that the committee members did nothing “that violates the legislation.”
“I’m comfy with the truth that as members of Congress, we had been doing our job, and so long as we do our job, there are specific ensures that we have now, and I stay up for implementing these ensures,” he mentioned.
Schiff, who has since been sworn into the Senate, mentioned Trump’s remarks had been “not the form of discuss we must always hear from a president in a democracy.”
The senator additionally reiterated throughout a Sunday interview on ABC’s ‘This Week’ his opposition to pre-emptive pardons, including that he has expressed his views “each publicly and privately to the administration.”
In a press release, Cheney mentioned, “Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his unlawful and unconstitutional actions ought to be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of legislation and the foundations of our republic.”
