WASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a symbolic resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s pardons for rioters who attacked police on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) asked the Senate for “unanimous consent” to adopt the resolution, connecting the mass pardon for rioters to Trump’s controversial “pause” on all federal grants this week.
“We are a week into the Trump administration, and it can be summed up in one word: lawlessness,” Murray said. “From pardoning en masse violent insurrectionists to illegally firing government watchdogs charged with holding him accountable to issuing blatantly unconstitutional executive orders to asking [the Office of Management and Budget] to halt funding Congress passed — something that is now causing serious harm to red states and blue states. We are not going to let his strategy of overwhelming chaos win the day.”
On behalf of Republicans, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) objected, saying he was grateful to be a week into the Trump administration and that Democrats weren’t interested in having a serious conversation about misuse of the presidential pardon power.
“If they did want a serious conversation, they would talk about Joe Biden’s pardons,” Barrasso said, citing Biden’s clemency for death row prisoners and his blanket pardons for members of his own family. “This resolution that the Senate is asked to consider today does not condemn the Biden abuse of the pardon power.”
Murray’s resolution, which was cosponsored by all 47 Senate Democrats, said only that the “Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol police officers.”
“I made sure this was short and clear, something we could pass unanimously,” Murray said. “I don’t think there’s anything here for anyone to disagree with.”
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Trump issued pardons last week to more than 1,500 rioters, including more than 600 charged with assaulting or interfering with police officers. (Trump also commuted the prison sentences of 14 rioters charged with seditious conspiracy.)
Many Republicans condemned the violence when it happened, with some even blaming Trump for sending a mob to the Capitol. But for the most part, Republicans have either moved on or are actively promoting the conspiracy that the FBI somehow orchestrated the violence as a trap for Trump supporters.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), however, has said the pardons for violent offenders were a “mistake.”