Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday those who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and “were truly violent” shouldn’t have gotten pardons.
“Do you agree with President Trump’s decision to pardon these violent people and releasing them from jail?” CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Burchett on “CNN Newsroom.”
“If they were truly violent, no but — but do I know that they were, I don’t know that,” the Tennessee lawmaker responded.
On the first day of the Trump presidency, nearly all Jan. 6 defendants received a pardon from the president. About 1,500 rioters were given “full, complete and unconditional pardons,” Trump said Monday night. Individuals who assaulted police officers amid the Jan. 6 riot were among those who got pardons this week.
“What they’ve done to these people is outrageous,” Trump said while in the Oval Office.
In his Tuesday appearance on “CNN Newsroom,” Burchett said that he “was offended as anybody” the day of the riots.
“If they [crossed] those barriers, they were breaking the law,” Burchett said. “But, you gotta realize too, [they were] charged under federal law. Many of ‘em never even saw their day in court and were sitting in a jail cell.”
The Jan. 6 pardons rattled Republican lawmakers that had front-row seats to the chaos on Capitol Hill four years ago. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) has expressed his unease with those “convicted of violent crime” being pardoned in a previous statement.
“It is wrong to pardon individuals convicted of violent crime, especially when many of the victims of their violence were law enforcement officers,” Moran said.
While Moran’s view about the pardons is shared by a large group of his fellow GOP senators, many of them are hesitant to go forward with criticism of the president.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a Tuesday post on Threads that Republican members of the lower chamber “are celebrating pardons issued to a bloodthirsty mob that violently assaulted police officers on January 6, 2021.”
“What happened to backing the Blue?” he asked
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
