Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said President Joe Biden should “very seriously” consider preemptive pardons for members of the House January 6 select committee after president-elect Donald Trump said last week they should be jailed.
Sanders twice called Trump’s recent statement “outrageous.”
“This is what authoritarianism is all about. It’s what dictatorship is all about,” the former Democrat said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning. “You do not arrest elected officials who disagree with you, who undertake an investigation.”
During a wide-ranging interview with NBC News host Kristen Welker last Sunday, Trump said the seven House Democrats and two House Republicans who served on the January 6 panel “should go to jail.”
The two Republican members were then-Representatives Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R., Ill.), both of whom Trump has verbally attacked for their role in investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Trump was implicated in that investigating for allegedly inciting an insurrection that day before exiting the White House nearly four years ago.
Trump’s comments sparked pushback from committee members themselves, including Senator Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and Representative Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.). Schiff said he doesn’t want a blanket pardon from Biden, while Thompson said he would gladly accept one before Trump can target him.
The president-elect suggested “maybe” Biden should preemptively pardon the entire committee before the White House switches administrations next month.
Sanders agreed with Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who definitively answered earlier on the show that January 6 committee members should not go to jail.
The independent senator also said he’s “nervous” about what the upcoming resignation of FBI director Christopher Wray means for the American people and democracy.
Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has said he plans to reshape the bureau by enabling agents to focus on enforcing the law instead of wading into partisan politics. If confirmed by the Senate, Patel is expected to “clean house” at the FBI, Senator Roger Marshall (R., Kan.) recently said on Fox News.
Trump doesn’t appear keen on weaponizing the Justice Department and FBI against his political opponents, though it could be argued that would be justified after the Biden administration and Democrats targeted him in several criminal cases. He said Biden “really divided our country” as a result of weaponizing the justice system.
Meanwhile, Trump has said he will pardon many January 6 prisoners on his first day in office, though there may be some exceptions if the individual’s imprisonment is justified. But for the most part, he wants to free innocent people from the harsh conditions they’re living in.
“I’m going to be acting very quickly. First day,” Trump told Welker. “They’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
Over 1,500 defendants have been charged in connection to the Capitol riot, and more than 1,200 have been convicted or pleaded guilty to the charges.