On Tuesday, after President Trump announced he would pardon roughly 1,500 people and commute the sentences of 14 others connected with the January 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol, California Democrat Rep. Robert Garcia delivered an unhinged rant targeting the recipients of Trump’s actions.
Garcia, who had already falsely claimed, along with other leftists, that Elon Musk had executed a Nazi salute at the inaugural, was interviewed by longtime Trump critic Jim Acosta of CNN.
“There’s obviously the potential for some of these rioters, some of these people who attacked the Capitol, to go out there and reoffend,” Acosta suggested. “I mean, what happens if one of these pardoned criminals goes out and commits another act of violence?”
“Well, let’s be real clear about what Donald Trump did,” Garcia replied. “He completely went in and pardoned, commuted sentences of some of the most violent people that we know of, whether it relates to damage and trying to overthrow our government.”
Interestingly, Garcia has apparently had no public comment condemning President Biden commuting the sentences of 37 people on federal death row in addition to Leonard Peltier, who had been convicted of the brutal murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
“These are people that stormed the Capitol because Donald Trump told them to do so,” Garcia said. “They attacked police officers. Police officers, as you know, were either greatly harmed, some died after the attack because of what happened. And they desecrated the Capitol offices, storming the House floor. And yet Donald Trump. with the stroke of a pen, frees them.”
Then Garcia wildly asserted that the recipients of the pardons should not be allowed in public, saying, “These are dangerous people, who, many of them should not have access to guns, should not have any sort of access to being out in the public. I visited many of these folks in the D.C. jail on behalf of the Democratic House Conference.”
Acosta asked what Garcia had found.
“First of all, they had no remorse; they kept chanting, ‘Let’s go, Brandon,’” Garcia said with horror. “They kept saying they were proud of what they did. These are people that should have no business being free and certainly should be held accountable for their crimes through the court process.”
Turning to Trump, he charged, “And so, look, Donald Trump did a lot of shameful things yesterday. I think this is the top of one of the worst.”
“He is going to double down on what he knows he can get away with,” he continued. “The man was told through the court system, through his supporters for the election, that you can break the law; you can attack people; you can be racist; you can essentially support the most wealthy in this country, bring in billionaires to help run the government and then you’re gonna be rewarded. And so I think we’ve gotta be very clear that Donald Trump and his administration is (sic) going to be a threat to our democracy, a threat to our institutions, and we’ve gotta push back.”
