Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to jail members of the House Jan. 6 Committee “an outrageous statement” and suggested that President Joe Biden consider pre-emptive pardons for committee members.
“This is exactly what authoritarianism is about. “That’s what dictatorship is all about,” Sanders stated.
When asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” if Biden should consider 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 went on: “Well, I think he might want to consider that very seriously.”
Last week, Trump said on “Meet the Press” that members of the committee in charge of investigating the Jan. 6 attack “should go to jail.”
He also declared his intention to seek a pardon for his supporters convicted for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, arguing that they had spent years in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be open.
More than 1,500 defendants have been charged in connection with their actions on January 6, and over 1,200 have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sanders’ statements.
Not all Republicans agree with Trump’s plan.
In an interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker earlier Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a key Trump ally, simply said “no” when asked if he agrees that committee members should be imprisoned.
After Trump’s remarks, committee members, including Democrats Adam Schiff of California and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the committee chairman, chastised him.
Thompson told reporters on Capitol Hill that the committee members did nothing “that violates the law.”
“I’m comfortable with the fact that as members of Congress, we were doing our job, and as long as we do our job, there are certain guarantees that we have, and I look forward to enforcing those guarantees,” according to him.
Since taking the oath of office in the Senate, Schiff has described Trump’s remarks as “not the kind of talk we should hear from a president in a democracy.”
During a Sunday interview with ABC’s ‘This Week,’ the senator reiterated his opposition to preemptive pardons, saying he has expressed his views “both publicly and privately to the administration.”
Cheney issued the following statement: “Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”