Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a key Trump ally, on Sunday opposed President Trump's pardon for the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including several Convicted of assaulting a law enforcement officer.
“I've always said that pardoning people who attack police officers sends the wrong signal to the public,” Graham told CNN's Dana Bash. “And that's not what you want to do to protect police.”
“But he has that power,” he added.
Graham also criticized former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s pardons for his family and his last-minute commutation of the sentence of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier, who spent nearly 50 years in prison in connection with the shooting. did. Killed two FBI agents.
Graham told CNN he had not spoken to Trump about his opposition to amnesty for violent rioters. “I don't like it on either side, and I don't think the people like it either,” he said. . Trump also pardoned rioters accused of nonviolent crimes, pardoning nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged in connection with the January 6 attack.
Graham suggested he would be open to reducing the use of pardon power if the president continues to use it to send “wrong signals” to the public. “If you have ideas on how to rein in the president's overreaching pardon powers, please call me,” he said.
Graham was not the only senator to criticize the widespread use of presidential pardons by both the current and former presidents.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Biden's decision to commute the federal drug sentence of a Connecticut man who had completed a 20-year state prison sentence in connection with the murders of a boy and his mother was “astounding.” “That is,” he said. During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” he was also critical of Trump's sweeping pardons at the start of his term.
California Sen. Adam Schiff, also a Democrat, said on NBC's “Meet the Press” that Trump's use of pardons for the violent mob on January 6th set a “devastating precedent.” He said it sent a message that people could attack law enforcement in that name. And the president's interest.
Schiff also criticized the sweeping pardons Biden granted the family, saying they gave the Trump family free rein to “engage in all sorts of fraudulent and criminal activity” and then “expect a pardon along the way.” He said he suggested that. Out the door. ”
“That's not the message you want to send to this family or the family that actually lives in the White House,” Schiff said.
Kim Min Ho Contributed to the report.
