Many Republican senators say they do not agree with President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon and commute sentences for more than 1,500 people who assaulted police officers, broke into the building or committed other crimes related to the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol four years ago.
But they aren’t pushing back on the decision.
“We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, repeating his frequent response to questions about Trump’s promises of retribution from his first term.
Thune did not say whether he supported or opposed the pardons, which rattled many on Capitol Hill who lived through the attack and fled the mob of Trump’s supporters as they violently broke into the building and halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Republican Sen Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said he would have preferred “a more surgical approach” to the pardons, looking at them case by case. “It’s not ideal in my mind,” Cramer said. “But I do think I understand the spirit of it, and I’m comfortable with it … hopefully we move forward now.”
Sen Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala, agreed.
“It’s a hard one, because we work with them up here,” Tuberville said of the Capitol Police who were beaten by the rioters and guard lawmakers every day. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to get Jan 6 behind us.”
Moving beyond the attack on the Capitol — and downplaying its violence — have become a central approach for congressional Republicans who have enthusiastically re-embraced Trump after his 2020 defeat and his attempts to overturn Biden’s win. And the muted GOP response to his sweeping pardons of both non-violent and violent Jan 6 rioters was another display of their longtime strategy of praising Trump when they agree and ignoring him when they don’t.
“We’re looking forward and beyond on other policy issues,” said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a member of Republican leadership.
The pardons, part of a flurry of executive orders on Trump’s first day in office, immediately upended what had become the largest prosecution in Justice Department history and freed criminals who brutally beat police and members of far-right extremist groups determined to stop Biden from assuming office. More than 100 police officers were injured. Some were never able to fully return to work.
Many prominent Republicans, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, had suggested that Trump would review the cases individually. But, as he had long promised, Trump’s actions were much more sweeping.
In defending Trump's move, Republicans have also been able to point to Biden’s own flurry of preemptive pardons, including of his own family and House members who investigated the Jan 6 attack, as he left office.
“How come everybody’s asking me about January 6th? Aren’t you going to ask me about the Biden pardons?” asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
“What we should be focusing on is the Biden pardons,” Kansas Sen Roger Marshall said angrily as reporters asked him about the clemency for Jan 6 rioters.
Many Democrats said they disagreed with Biden’s actions, as well. Connecticut Sen Richard Blumenthal said that he opposed the preemptive pardons, and was frustrated that they gave Trump “an argument — even though it’s a false argument — to pardon the Jan 6 insurrectionists as well.”
A few Republicans said they agreed with Trump.
New Ohio Sen Bernie Moreno said that he appreciates Capitol Police officers, but “nobody’s been treated worse” than the rioters. Wyoming Sen Cynthia Lummis said she is “so glad those people are out of jail.”
More than 200 people convicted of Jan 6 crimes were released from federal Bureau of Prisons custody by Tuesday morning, officials told The Associated Press.
A few Republican senators said they opposed the pardons, even as they appeared resigned to the idea. North Carolina Sen Thom Tillis said he has an “honest disagreement” with the president over pardoning violent offenders. South Dakota Sen Mike Rounds said he couldn’t defend them.
Maine Sen Susan Collins said she had received a message from a police officer who sent her a video of his assault. “I don’t disagree with him at all,” she said. “People who committed violent crimes on January 6th, 2021, should not be pardoned.”
The pardons by both Trump and Biden “erodes public confidence,” she said.
Alaska Sen Lisa Murkowski said she was disappointed in the pardons, and pointed to a police officer who was guarding Republicans as they entered their weekly luncheon.
“I do fear the message that is sent to these great men and women that stood by us,” Murkowski said.
Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Lisa Mascaro and Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
33 Comments
nickybutt
Pardons for criminals. Biden and Trump should both be ashamed. This is how a dictatorship is run. America just gets worse and worse.
u_s__reamer
You can't even hear a pin are drop when his pardons because shame tends to tie tongues.
u_s__reamer
Correction:
You can't even hear a pin drop when his pardons are mentioned because shame tends to tie tongues.
JJE
Sensible position. Look forward and positive and not live in the past with negativity.
Biden gave blanket pardons to his own family members at the final moment, so this corrects the ledger.
JJE
Trump just pardoned Ross Ulbricht (founder of Silk Road).
Blacklabel
Was not a word about Biden’s pardons.
the minute Trump did some? now they criticizing “both” Presidents.
why? Because now Trump can pardon anyone he has ever met or heard of four years from now after they do anything/everything he tells them to.
biden messed up. But he doesn’t care, never did. Just his own family and lackeys.
Ken
We already knew he was going to do this, they were his gang members anyways
OssanAmerica
Really? Did they try to overturn the US Government?
virusrex
Of course, but that is why the article is focused on the response from republican senators, it is important to call attention to any incongruencies with what they have previously said was important.
Tokyo Guy
Course they're "mostly quiet". They're a bunch of spineless lackeys, which is just what Trump wants.
theFu
Senators are smart. They don't want to be shot.
Those rioters mostly have guns and anyone who doesn't agree with their release (or most things Trump says) could easily become targets for the whackier people in that group AND some new whackers too. After all, they are all "fine people" according to Trump.
Tokyo Guy
*Trump's pardoning of people who did nothing illegal on January 6 is far, far, FAR more justifiable than Biden's pre-emptive pardoning of Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci, and his entire family.*
I remember, as a student, in history class, being shown a famous photograph. The original was of Lenin making a speech. Trotsky was in the corner of the photograph. Later the photograph resurfaced, and Trotsky wasn't there.
I didn't really understand the bigger message - I was only in junior high - but with hindsight, it was just the precursor to things like this. There are hundreds of hours of video of people acting in an aggressive and violent manner in and around the Capitol, and yet we have people who aren't even ashamed to deny this fact.
Even more ironic that people on here, who presumably call themselves America first patriots, are basically doing exactly what the Russians did a century before. Just can't get away from that USSR obsession.
Blacklabel
we don’t even know what they were pardoned for as none of them were even investigated.
do you happen to know what the pardons were for?
Blacklabel
What for example might Joe Biden’s brother’s wife have done to need a pardon when she hasn’t even been under investigation for anything.
Jimizo
Republican senators keeping quiet about pardoning some innocuous but perhaps a little high-spirited visitors taking photos.
Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
OssanAmerica
Ask the OP Deo Gratias who equated the Jan 6th rioters to Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci, and his entire family.
stormcrow
The J-6ers through blood, violence and defecation upon our nation’s Capitol salute you!!!
Blacklabel
maybe they are equal?
Thus the need for a pardon too.
we were not even allowed to start investigating them to find out. So must be really bad what they did.
if they truly didn’t do anything, they could have declined the pardon, right?
Adam Kinzinger said he didn’t need one. He took it though, didn’t he?
bass4funk
What can the Republicans say? Nothing, they’re not the President and the vast majority of them want them released as well.
wallace
You are saying not all Republicans then?
Kuribozu
Message to violent Trump supporters: Your violence on my behalf is... perfectly legal! Now stand by until I figure out where to sic you fine thugs next. Trump has his very own Brownshirt army now.
Bob Fosse
Because they are self serving cowards with zero principles.
bass4funk
Not sure and not that it matters
I guess we can make that argument about every President
Bob Fosse
I was making it about Republican senators. You know, the ones in the headline of the article above.
MiuraAnjin
As the swamp drains it is getting more fetid.
iknowall
Remember Chuck Schumer said preemptive pardons "would be a gross abuse of presidential pardon authority"?
December, 2020. Jake Tapper (CNN fake news) asks President-elect Biden about the rumor that Trump may issue some preemptive pardons before leaving office.
Biden: You're not going to see me do that.
Good on these Republican senators for not making a mockery out of the US' system.
iknowall
*After all, they are all "fine people" according to Trump.*
This is a falsely attributed quote.
bass4funk
I as well, but my question is, what can any of them say about the President? More importantly, there’s nothing they can do? Nothing.
raincloud
Unfortunately it seems more and more that America's future is being decided by illiterate, uneducated thugs.
Jimizo
It does come across that way.
The shirtless shaman a perfect symbol of the cracked, cultish, conspiracy-theory fueled basement nonsense the internet has given us.
These people can vote.
Was universal suffrage a good idea?
lostrune2
Two pleaded guilty of the Jan 6th rioters were responsible for the murder of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. After his death, Sicknick's remains lay in honor at the U.S. Capitol with Capitol Police officer guards. His family was outraged what happened to law and order:
Underworld
Blacklabel
Nothing. That's point. Trump won't care if anybody has actually done anything before he gets his DOJ to go after them.
Blacklabel
how do we know it’s nothing if an investigation hasn’t even started and we don’t even know for what.
So he never gets to even investigate anyone, ever?
Every Democrat aligned person is just “innocent”.
“my son has done nothing wrong”. Didn’t that quickly change after he was investigated?