‘We Let Bad People Go!’ Republican Senator Rages At Trump’s J6 Pardons

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) fumed at President Donald Trump’s pardon of January 6th rioters, including ones who violently attacked police, in a fiery floor speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol.

“But the President, on the advice of somebody in the White House—and I hope I find out the name of that person—also pardoned criminals who injured police officers, who destroyed this building,” Tillis said, adding:

Is there anybody listening to me today, all 30 of them that are listening? Is there anyone here, if you had that happen to your office or your business, would you think, “Well, they were just a little hotheaded, let them go and not prosecute them”? Or would you hold them accountable for destroying the citadel of democracy?

So I believe that there were many people that should have been pardoned: the people who just came in, they didn’t understand what was happening. The people that led the vanguard, the people that were waving people through, the people that burned the buildings, the people that injured a police officer leading to the death of an officer should go to prison for as long as the law allows. And yet they got loose, including the ‘QAnon Shaman.’

Now, people from my side of the aisle said what a terrible thing we’re doing to these people by imprisoning them. Do you all know this guy? Forget his name, but we all know the dude with the horns and no shirt. Do you know, everybody’s talking about these horrible conditions that these people were in when they were in jail or prison. This man got transferred from a D.C. prison to another prison because the prison he was originally incarcerated in did not satisfy his organic diet. I am not kidding you.

So I think a lot of people are overblowing, as we oftentimes do here. We have some Democrats today say it was all about January 6th. It was about the complacency and the onslaught against law enforcement for years before January the 6th—that I give to my Democratic colleagues. And then after January the 6th, I look to my Republican colleagues and say, “Don’t take the bait.” People that harm police officers and destroy federal buildings should go to prison, and it’s a damn shame they’re out because nearly three dozen of them have actually been arrested for another crime since they were pardoned.

And here we have to speak truth to power. I support President Trump. I campaigned for President Trump. I would support him again if he ran for reelection, which is not going to happen. However, we acted on bad advice, we let bad people go, and we sent the message that if you come to this Capitol and you’ve got the right president in office, he’s gonna let you get past things that any one of us would not get away with if we did it back in our own state.

Tillis announced his retirement from politics last year after Trump attacked him over his stance on healthcare policy.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.