Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday described President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to jail members of the House Jan. 6th Committee as “an outrageous statement” and said that President Joe Biden should consider preemptive pardons for committee members.
“This is what authoritarianism is all about. It’s what dictatorship is all about,” Sanders added.
Asked whether Biden should consider preemptive pardons for committee members, which included seven House Democrats and two House Republicans — then-Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. — Sanders told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “Well, I think he might want to consider that very seriously.”
His remarks come just over a week after Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that members of the committee, which were tasked with investigating that Jan. 6 attack, “should go to jail.”
He also said he would seek to pardon his supporters who were convicted for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, saying that his supporters have “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 relation to their actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and more than 1,200 have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Sanders’ remarks.
Not all Republicans are on board with Trump’s plan, though.
During an interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker earlier Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a top Trump ally, plainly said “No,” when asked whether he agrees that members of the Jan. 6 committee should go to jail.
In the days after Trump’s comments, committee members like Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., blasted the president-elect.
Thompson told reporters on Capitol Hill that the committee members did nothing “that violates the law.”
“I’m comfortable with the fact that as members of Congress, we were doing our job, and as long as we do our job, there are certain guarantees that we have, and I look forward to enforcing those guarantees,” he said.
Schiff said Trump’s remarks were “not the kind of talk we should hear from a president in a democracy.”
In a statement, Cheney said, “Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”
Ryan J. Reilly and Syedah Asghar contributed.
