Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday described President-elect Donald Trump's threat to jail members of the House Jan. 6 Committee as "an outrageous statement" and said President Joe Biden should consider pre-emptive pardons for committee members.
"This is what authoritarianism is all about. It's what dictatorship is all about," Sanders said.
Asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” whether Biden should consider pre-emptive pardons for committee members — seven House Democrats and two House Republicans, then-Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. — Sanders said, "Well, I think he might want to consider that very seriously."
Trump said last week on "Meet the Press" that members of the committee, which was tasked with investigating that Jan. 6 attack, "should go to jail."
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He also said he would seek to pardon his supporters who were convicted for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying his supporters have "been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
Over 1,500 defendants have been charged in relation to their actions on Jan. 6, and more than 1,200 have been convicted or have pleaded guilty.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Sanders' remarks.
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Not all Republicans are on board with Trump's plan.
In an interview with "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker earlier Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a top Trump ally, plainly said "no" when asked whether he agrees that members of the committee should go to jail.
After Trump's comments, committee members like Democrats Adam Schiff, of California, and Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, the committee chairman, blasted him.
Thompson told reporters on Capitol Hill that the committee members did nothing “that violates the law.”
“I’m comfortable with the fact that as members of Congress, we were doing our job, and as long as we do our job, there are certain guarantees that we have, and I look forward to enforcing those guarantees,” he said.
Schiff, who has since been sworn into the Senate, said Trump’s remarks were “not the kind of talk we should hear from a president in a democracy.”
The senator also reiterated during a Sunday interview on ABC's 'This Week' his opposition to pre-emptive pardons, adding that he has expressed his views “both publicly and privately to the administration."
In a statement, Cheney said, “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.”
Ryan J. Reilly, Syedah Asghar and Megan Lebowitz contributed.
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