Last weekend at a rally in Texas, former President Donald Trump indicated that if he won the presidency again he would be inclined towards issuing pardons for January 6 rioters. Consistently, Trump has made no meaningful distinction between those with parts in January 6 when making his attempted defenses for what went on that day, suggesting that he’s essentially fine with hundreds of brutal assaults on police officers, threats to the lives of government leaders, evidence-backed charges of seditious conspiracy, and more. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — who is consistently one of the few Republicans in Congress who are willing to go against Trump — is speaking out against Trump’s excuses for the rioters.
A pair of Republican governors, Asa Hutchinson and Larry Hogan, have now said Trump that should not be the future of the GOP.
Hogan: "With America on the wrong path, the stakes are too high to double down on failure."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 1, 2022
As a statement on Cheney’s official Twitter account put it this week:
‘Trump has suggested he would pardon Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy. He has acknowledged he was trying to overturn the election. He is making clear he would do this all again if given the chance.’
Trump has suggested he would pardon Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy.
He has acknowledged he was trying to overturn the election. He is making clear he would do this all again if given the chance. pic.twitter.com/KHN0bOov3I
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) February 1, 2022
At the Texas rally, Trump said that “another thing we’ll do — and so many people have been asking me about it — if I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly… And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.” Again: the people who Trump’s talking about brutally assaulted police officers and threatened the very functioning of government. And it sounds like all of this hardly fazes him. The Justice Department is keeping up its wide-ranging investigation of January 6, though — it was just recently, after a full year since the riot had passed, that the first seditious conspiracy charges were doled out. The charges hit individuals associated with the far-right group known as the Oath Keepers, who (among other things) prepared for violence and stockpiled weapons before January 6.
National Archives: “As has been reported in the press since 2018, White House records management officials during the Trump Administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records. These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump Admin..”
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) February 1, 2022
Meanwhile, of course, Trump is continuing to keep up his attacks on what is actually the duly documented outcome of the last presidential election. In a statement that was released this Tuesday, he insisted that the House committee investigating the Capitol riot — where Cheney serves as vice chair — should be investigating “why Mike Pence did not send back the [electoral] votes for recertification… in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!” That hasn’t been shown. What Trump wanted Pence to do was reject Biden’s electoral votes from certain states while presiding over the Congressional proceedings to certify the election outcome, and — according to this telling — a next step in this delusional plan would have been to kick the matter back to certain states.
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
“So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago… pic.twitter.com/IagKnvPr5M
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) February 1, 2022
