Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that it was “inappropriate” for former President Donald Trump’s offer to pardon those charged for the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Partial transcript as follows:
BRENNAN: Senator, more than 730 people have been charged by the Justice Department for their role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6 to stop–
GRAHAM: Right.
BRENNAN: the certification of our election. Last night, President Trump, at a rally, said this.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.
BRENNAN: Pardons? Do you agree?
GRAHAM: No, I don’t want to send any signal that it was OK to defile the Capitol. There are other groups with causes that may want to go down to the violent path that these people get pardoned.
BRENNAN: But isn’t that a dangerous thing to say?
GRAHAM: Kamala Harris- Yeah. Well, I think it’s inappropriate. I- I don’t want to reinforce that defiling the Capitol was OK. I don’t want to do anything that would make this more likely in the future. And just let me finish my thought here. When Kamala Harris and her associates and the people that work for her, her staffers, raised money to bail out the rioters who hit cops in the head and burned down stores. I didn’t like that either. So I don’t want to do anything from raising bail to pardoning people who take the law into their own hands because it will make more violence more likely. I want to deter people who did what–
BRENNAN: Yes.
GRAHAM: on January 6. And those who did it, I hope they go to jail and get the book thrown at them because they deserve it.
BRENNAN: That was clear, Senator.
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