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Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a key Trump ally, spoke Sunday against President Trump’s pardon of violent rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, several of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers. the law.
“I’ve always said that when you forgive people who attack police officers, you’re sending the wrong signal to the general public,” Graham told CNN’s Dana Bash. “And that’s not what you want to do to protect police officers.”
“But he has that power,” he added.
Mr. Graham also criticized former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s use of pardons for his family members and a last-minute commutation for Leonard Peltier, an indigenous rights activist who spent nearly 50 years in prison in connection with a shooting that killed two FBI agents.
“I don’t like it on both sides, and I don’t think the public likes it either,” said Mr. Graham, who told CNN that he had not spoken to Mr. Trump about his opposition to the Violent Motherers pardons. Trump also pardoned rioters charged with nonviolent crimes, granting clemency to nearly all of the 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
Mr. Graham suggested that if presidents continued to use the pardon power to send “the wrong signals” to the public, then he would be open to reducing its use. “If you have an idea about how to rein in the pardon power of a president who goes too far, give me a call,” he said.
Mr. Graham was not the only senator who was so critical of the current and former president for using the presidential pardon.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called it “appalling” that Mr. Biden commuted the federal drug sentence of a Connecticut man who had previously finished a 20-year state sentence related to the murders of a boy and his mother. During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” he also criticized Mr. Trump’s sweep of pardons at the start of his term.
Another Democrat, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump’s use of pardons for the violent Jan. 6 pardons set a “destructive precedent” and sent a message that people can attack the police if it is in the name. and interest of the president.
Schiff also denounced the blanket pardons that Mr. Biden granted to his family members, saying they suggested to the Trump family that they had free license to “engage in any kind of embezzlement, criminality” and then “expect a pardon down the road.” through the door.”
“That’s not a message you want to send to this family or really any family occupying the White House,” Schiff said.
Minho Kim Contributed reports.
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