Republican senators are slapping down President Trump’s claim that people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes are “hostages” who should be pardoned or set free by President Biden or a future president.
Three years after a mob of pro-Trump protestors invaded the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, GOP senators who witnessed the violence of that day bristle at the characterization of individuals who were convicted of crimes as “hostages” or political prisoners.
“I don’t condone that characterization at all, no,” said Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) when asked about Trump calling Jan. 6-related convicts “hostages.”
“We got a justice system and they’re working through it,” Thune said of the nearly 900 people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes, including more than 200 people who have pleaded guilty to felonies.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, dismissed Trump’s claim — echoed by some other Republicans — that individuals who were convicted of destroying property or assaulting police officers in the Capitol are “hostages.”
“Somebody who’s been duly convicted of a federal crime is not a hostage,” he said.
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Asked about the third anniversary of Jan. 6 and the characterization of people convicted of storming and damaging the Capitol as “hostages,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters that he stands by the remarks he made at the end of Trump’s second impeachment trial when he denounced the former president and the “criminals” who “were carrying his banners, hanging his flags and screaming their loyalty to him.”
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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) balked at the notion that people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes are somehow hostages or political prisoners.
“That’s like calling drug traffickers unlicensed pharmacists. At the end of the day, they’re J6 convicts to me,” he said.
“If they were proven guilty in a court of law of a crime, it is what it is,” he said. “Are there some people that were swept up in it? Yeah, but use better judgment. If you were only accidently in the Capitol, you probably didn’t get convicted. If you hurt a police officer, you should have been convicted. If you broke anything on the Capitol, you should have been convicted. You should serve your time. Period, end of story.
“That’s not a hostage,” he added. “We have hostages held by Hamas right now. I have a different standard for what I consider hostages.”
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Republican senators are slapping down Trump’s claim that people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes are “hostages” who should be pardoned or set free by Biden or a future president. https://t.co/luy5LHRoJ2 pic.twitter.com/O7jrNKtouR
— The Hill (@thehill) January 10, 2024
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