‘Political Violence Just Got Legitimized’: Trump’s January 6 Pardons Said to Send Dangerous Message
Democrats are now in danger, senator says
Donald Trump’s pardons for those who participated in the insurrection of January 6, 2021 — including those who committed acts of violence that day — send a dangerous signal for US democracy.
That’s according to a prominent Democratic senator.
Trump began his second presidency by issuing roughly 1,500 pardons and commuting the sentences for 14 others involved in the riot that tried to block the lawful certification of Joe Biden as president and keep Trump in office illegally after the 2020 presidential election.
Included in the pardons were 169 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers.
Freeing these rioters was a dangerous move, said Sen Chris Murphy (D-Conn).
“I mean, let’s really talk about who he let out of prison this week, who walked out of prison,” Murphy said. “The guy walked out of prison this week that pepper sprayed multiple officers to the point where one had a heart attack. He let out of jail this week people who were beating police officers over the head with poles. He let out of jail someone who said when he arrived in Washington that day ‘There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution.’
“These weren’t tourists. These weren’t people that just got accidentally pushed into the Capitol. These were people who came to Washington with the explicit purpose of beating the hell out of police officers and killing Democratic members of Congress. And so what happened this week is that political violence just got legitimized in this country,” Murphy said.
Specifically, Trump’s January 6 pardons threaten the safety of Democrats, the senator said.
“And you’re going to see it again and again and again, specifically directed towards Democrats, because Donald Trump has said, ‘If you beat up a police officer to further my political agenda, if you terrorize Democrats, I will let you off the hook,’” he said. “We have never, ever in the 240-year history of this country seen anything like this. Our country is fundamentally different today than it was before these pardons are issued.”
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