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Even Republicans who once said violent rioters should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law declined to criticize the presidential clemency for violent offenders, saying it was time to move on.
- Jan. 21, 2025, 3:49 p.m. ET
A small contingent of Republicans in Congress on Tuesday criticized President Donald Trump’s pardons of more than 1,500 people charged for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including rioters who violently attacked police.
“I just can’t agree,” Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, told reporters on Capitol Hill early Tuesday, adding that he would propose new legislation to tighten penalties for violent actions against law enforcement officers.
“I’m about to file two bills that will increase the penalties, up to and including the death penalty, for the murder of a police officer and increasing the penalties and creating federal crimes for assaulting a police officer,” Mr. Tillis told a crowd of reporters gathered outside his office.
Members of Congress ran in fear of their lives from the Capitol four years ago as it was besieged by a pro-Trump mob, and many Republicans made strong statements in the immediate aftermath of the attack that violent rioters must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But on Tuesday, few spoke up to object to Mr. Trump’s pardons, and many Republican lawmakers said it was time to move on.
“We’re looking at the future, not the past,” Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said, calling the pardons “the president’s decision.”
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