During a recent interview, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said that President Joe Biden should seriously consider issuing preemptive pardons for lawmakers who investigated President-elect Trump over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Sanders made the remarks during a Sunday sitdown with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” during which he took a few shots at the incoming administration.
“You know, when Trump talks about sending to jail people who were on that January 6th committee, that sounds like being a tinpot dictator,” Sanders said.
“So I would hope that we have an FBI and a Justice Department that protects the civil liberties of the American people and does its best to protect the American democracy,” he added.
Following his own legal trouble at the hands of the Biden Justice Department, Trump has said numerous times that he would go after those who went after him. Trump has also committed to pardoning Jan. 6 rioters within the first few hours of his return to office.
In response to the rhetoric shared throughout his campaign, Sanders said Biden should preemptively pardon the entire Jan. 6 committee to protect them from any legal action by Trump.
“I think he might want to consider that very seriously,” Sanders said.
Trump discussed the committee during his sitdown with “Meet the Press” this month, saying, “Honestly, they should go to jail.”
Sanders went on to compare the incoming administration to “authoritarianism,” saying this is “what dictatorship is all about.”
“You do not arrest elected officials who disagree with you.”
During the committee hearings, Trump made his feelings known through social media posts. He also shared his strong disdain for the committee’s chair, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who has all but left the Republican party because of Trump.
Cheney recently responded to Trump’s threats in a statement to The Hill. In it, she maintains that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, were sufficient to conduct a formal probe, denying that it was done as a form of political persecution.
“He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building, and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave,” she said.
“This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history. 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.”