US Senator Lindsey Graham has said that authorities who investigated Donald Trump supporters’ fatal assault on the US Capitol in 2021 should not be imprisoned, contrary to what his Republican colleague has suggested in anticipation of his second term.
During a Sunday appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, presenter Kristen Welker asked Graham whether he agreed with Trump’s statement on the show seven days earlier that everyone involved in the investigation of the January 6 Capitol incident “should go to jail.”
“No,” replied Graham, South Carolina’s senior senator and the chamber’s ranking member of the judiciary and budget committees.
Welker posed the question to Graham during a section designed to generate short responses, which she recognized by saying, “OK – that was very clear and concise.”
The exchange demonstrated Graham’s occasional willingness to publicly disagree with Trump while remaining a staunch ally, and it occurred amid a broader political debate over who should be pardoned in connection with an attack on Congress that resulted in multiple deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers.
Trump has pledged to begin his second term in January 2025 by pardoning those who carried out the attack, but there may be some exceptions. On December 8, he talked with Welker about how his followers were persuaded to take guilty pleas in connection with the violent, desperate effort to retain him in the White House after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
After winning the presidency in November against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump denied directing his second administration to jail elected officials who investigated the Capitol incident, which resulted in federal criminal charges against him that were later dropped. Nonetheless, he made sure to tell Welker, “Honestly, they should go to jail.”
Bernie Sanders, the leftist US senator, made a separate appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday, saying Biden should “very seriously consider” awarding pre-emptive pardons to those investigating the Capitol assault, as others have recommended. Sanders did not disclose any names, but a week ago, Trump cited the names of Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, who were the chairman and vice-chairperson of the US House committee created for the probe.
Sanders emphasized that arresting elected officials who conduct investigations is a sign of tyranny and dictatorship, not democracy.
Sanders further commented: “You just heard Lindsey Graham make that statement – I think that idea of Trump is not going to very far.”
More than 1,250 individuals have pleaded guilty or been convicted in the January 6 attack. At least 645 individuals have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from a few days to 22 years.
During his interview with Welker on December 8, Trump blamed such convictions on “a very corrupt system” that he would keep in check via pardons, while condemning Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter, for lying on gun ownership application papers and tax fraud.
“I know the system,” said Trump, who was convicted in May in New York state court of fraudulently fabricating company records to hide hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
