Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On President-Elect Trump’s Pledge To Pardon January 6th Rioters
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to condemn the incoming Trump administration’s plan to pardon January 6th rioters, reiterating that “no one who participated in one of the darkest, most shameful days in American history should be pardoned.” Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Donald Trump has promised to spend the first hour of his presidency pardoning the violent mob who stormed the Capitol and attacked our police officers on January 6th.
Instead of focusing on helping working families, or lowering health care costs, or making life better for the American people, Donald Trump’s very first priority seems to be pardoning the January 6th rioters.
And yesterday on Fox News Sunday, the Vice President-elect, JD Vance, feeling the heat that these pardons are not very popular with the American people, said that while those who committed violence should not be pardoned, he implied that those who did not commit violence could deserve to be pardoned.
The people who invaded the Capitol on January 6th, whether they committed violence or not, should not be pardoned.
They unlawfully broke into the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
What they did is a serious crime. There’s no gray area here.
There would be nothing more insulting to our democracy, and to the memory of those who died in connection to that day, than letting rioters walk free. We would be saying, in effect, that you can storm the Capitol, engage in violence against police officers, or be part of a crowd who engaged in such violence, and try to overturn a free and fair election, and then walk away with no consequences.
Rioters who broke into the Capitol on January 6th to try and stop the peaceful transfer of power and subvert our democracy do not deserve a presidential pardon.
Whether they committed violence or not, no one who participated in one of the darkest, most shameful days in American history should be pardoned.
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