by Eric Lendrum
Most Republican members of the United States Senate said they will not oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to pardon most, if not all, of the January 6th protesters.
According to The Hill, several Republicans in the Senate cited Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son Hunter as reasoning, with Democrats being forced into a corner of being called hypocrites following Biden’s controversial decision.
“As we found from Hunter Biden, the president’s pardon authority is pretty extensive. That’s obviously a decision he’ll have to make,” said Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), the newly-elected Senate Majority Leader, when asked about President-elect Trump’s plans to pardon the J6’ers.
Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the failed candidates for Senate Majority Leader after Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stepped down from the position, similarly described President-elect Trump’s planned pardons as “prerogative.”
“We’ve seen what President Biden did with his son, and presidents have that prerogative and it really doesn’t involve Congress,” said Cornyn.
“We’ll see what he does. I mean it’s been four or five years,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “The ones that hurt cops, they’d be in a different category for me, but we’ll leave that up to him.”
President Trump had repeatedly promised on the campaign trail to pardon either most or all of the January 6th prisoners; he again reiterated his intention to do so on his first day in office during an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
On January 6th, 2021, several hundred supporters of President Trump peacefully entered the United States Capitol after Capitol Police opened the doors and let them in. The protesters had been demonstrating their support for Trump and their opposition to widespread voter fraud which occurred in the 2020 election. Despite the fact that the protesters were almost entirely peaceful, hundreds have since faced federal charges and have been falsely accused of committing an “insurrection.” Many have been jailed, some in solitary confinement, while their legal proceedings dragged on for much longer than any normal trial, with several defendants being given sentences of 20 years for peacefully protesting.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
Photo “January 6 Riot” by Elvert Barnes. CC BY-SA 2.0.
