Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., broke with President Donald Trump on his pardons of accused Jan. 6 rioters.
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Graham called the pardons of 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants “a mistake,” adding that it sent the wrong message to supporters about violence and the rule of law.
“He had the legal authority to do it,” Graham said. “Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently I think was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that’s an okay thing to do.”
Graham noted that law enforcement groups were against the Trump pardons, which freed the leadership of several far-right militias. Still, Graham said that Trump’s pardons were one more promise kept by the president.
“Law enforcement didn’t like this. But he said it during the campaign, he’s not tricking people. You know, Biden promised not to pardon his family; he did. Trump said, ‘I’m going to pardon these people.’ So the fact that he did it is no surprise,” Graham shared. “But I’ll be consistent here. I don’t like the idea of bailing people out of jail or pardoning people who burn down cities and beat up cops, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat.”
Graham said the J6 pardons and Biden’s pardons of his family members, might lead Congress to consider placing limits on presidential pardon power.
“I think most Americans, if this continues, to see this as an abuse of the pardon power, that we’ll revisit the pardon power of the president if this continues,” he said.
Watch Graham speak on the pardons below:
