Liz Cheney says Trump's offer to consider Jan. 6 pardons shows 'he'd do it all again'
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on Monday warned that former President Donald Trump’s suggestion at a weekend rally that he might pardon those who have been convicted of crimes related to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol shows he would “do it all again.”
“Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests he’d pardon the Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election,” Cheney tweeted. “He’d do it all again if given the chance.”
At a rally in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday, Trump said he would consider pardoning people convicted of joining the attack if he is elected to a second term in 2024.
“If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” Trump told the crowd. “We will treat them fairly, and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”
More than 700 people have been charged by the Justice Department with crimes related to Jan. 6, when a violent mob of Trump supporters, fueled by his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, stormed the Capitol as Congress was in the process of certifying Joe Biden’s victory. The attack left multiple people dead and more than 140 police officers injured.
The former president railed against the House select committee investigating the Capitol assault. Cheney is one of two Republicans on the bipartisan panel.
“This hasn’t happened to all of the other atrocities that took place recently. Nothing like this has happened,” Trump fumed. “What that ‘un-select’ committee is doing and what the people are doing that are running those prisons, it’s a disgrace.”
Trump also called for protests against “racist” prosecutors in New York and Georgia investigating him and his business.
In response, Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter to the FBI's Atlanta field office on Sunday asking for protection to “ensure that we do not have a tragedy in Atlanta similar to what happened at the United States Capitol on January 6.”
Late Sunday, Trump released a statement repeating his false claim that Vice President Mike Pence “did have the right to change the outcome” of Trump’s loss to Biden on Jan. 6 and "could have overturned the Election."
“This is an admission, and a massively un-American statement,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who sits alongside Cheney on the Jan. 6 committee.
“It is time for every Republican leader to pick a side,” Kinzinger added. “Trump or the Constitution, there is no middle on defending our nation anymore.”
