The law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 and their families were “in so much pain” watching President Donald Trump’s inauguration, anticipating that he would pardon the rioters, reported CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel.
Former President Joe Biden caused controversy with his last-minute preemptive pardons in the final hours of his presidency, including his former Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, members of the House January 6 Select Committee, and the law enforcement officers who testified before the committee. That was followed by a truly last-minute preemptive pardon, announced with less than half an hour before Trump was inaugurated, of several of Biden family members.
These last-chance pardons follow Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of federal tax evasion and gun charges, in early December. Notably missing from Biden’s pardon list were Special Counsel Jack Smith and the other federal prosecutors who worked on the criminal cases against Trump and retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified against Trump in his first impeachment.
For Trump’s part, he has repeatedly referred to the rioters charged and convicted of crimes as “January 6 hostages” and promised to pardon them on day one of his second term, although how widespread those pardons might be remains to be seen, with critics of the re-elected president lamenting he may
The CNN panel was discussing the issues related to these various and potential presidential pardons Monday afternoon after Trump had been inaugurated and inaugural festivities were continuing in the nation’s capital.
“Under the Constitution, the President of the United States, whether President Biden or President Trump, they have the right to issue pardons and commute sentences, so legally everything is in place,” noted anchor Wolf Blitzer.
CNN political commentator Ashley Allison urged that they “separate the pardons that are happening today,” noting that Biden had pardoned Fauci, Milley, and the Jan. 6 committee to protect them from the “retribution” that Trump had vowed to seek, but she thought it was “unfortunate that he pardoned his family today.”
“I’m a Democrat, I think that it does cloud what he did,” she added, saying that the expected pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters were “completely different.”
Today’s inauguration felt “so abnormal,” Allison continued, “because of what happened four years ago on January 6th, something that none of us in our lifetime have ever seen.”
“I want to put those pardons in separate buckets and we should be talking about them differently because all pardons are not created equal, in my opinion,” she concluded.
“Let us not forget
Gangel said that she had been texting with the mother of Brian Sicknick, who died after enduring violent assaults during the riot, including being sprayed with bear spray, and suffered multiple strokes the day after the riot. Two of the rioters were charged and convicted for their assaults on Sicknick.
Sicknick’s mother was “watching all of this,” said Gangel, “and she is in so much pain.”
Gangel continued, speaking of the other officers who were “brutally, brutally injured” during the riot, or committed suicide in the aftermath, and their families, and how they were “sitting there, waiting to see what these pardons mean.”
The idea that “people convicted of violence against police officers” could get pardoned by Trump was “very, very hard for a lot of people to watch this,” said Gangel.
Anchor John King commented that “no one should be surprised when he pardons January 6th defendants because he said it repeatedly during the campaign,” and the question would be “what is the standard” he’ll apply, because if Trump pardons someone “and there’s video of them violently beating a police officer, that
Watch the clip above via CNN.