WASHINGTON – Sen. Andy Kim walked into his Senate office in the basement of the U.S. Capitol convoluted on Tuesday with tears in his eyes.
The freshman Democrat from New Jersey had just spoken on the phone with the brother of Officer Brian Sicknick, the New Jersey Capitol Police officer who was attacked during the Jan. 6, 2021 riots and died the next day after suffering two strokes. Sicknick’s family was shocked after President Donald J. Trump issued a sweeping pardon to perpetrators of crimes committed on January 6 on his first day in office.
“They feel betrayed and as if what we call the ‘rule of law’ no longer exists,” Kim said. “We live in a country where people who assault and ultimately kill a police officer cannot even be held accountable. … They felt like Brian had died in vain.”
Trump’s decision to pardon nearly all of the Jan. 6 defendants — including those who committed violent crimes that day against officers defending the Capitol — enraged Democrats and even some Republicans on Tuesday morning.
Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) called it “a terrible day for our Department of Justice” and said there were stark contrasts between peaceful protesters and “individuals and people who attacked police officers with bats, fists or pepper spray.”
“They committed brutal crimes and in my opinion they should not be pardoned. What message do you think this sends to the officers who were attacked?” said Collins, one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection four years ago.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) also criticized the decision in an interview on CNN. And Republican Brian Fitzpatrick representing Bucks County, said Monday before the pardons were announced that as a former FBI agent, he is generally opposed to pardons.
Trump’s allies were quick to defend him.
“Some of these people have been in prison for a long time, serving a long time, and January 6 was a long time ago,” Rep. Bernie Moreno (D-Ohio) said on Capitol Hill.
The pardons fulfilled a campaign promise to Trump’s most steadfast supporters and sent a message to his opponents. The clemency order will cover approximately 1,500 people, including more than 150 people accused in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It represents one of the most broad uses of the pardon power in U.S. history since President Andrew Johnson granted pardons to former Confederates on Christmas Day in 1868.
Many of the staunchest supporters who came to Washington for Trump’s inauguration cheered the pardons in the hours before they were issued, but even some of them said they thought the nonviolent incidents should be rejected.
“Many of these J-sixers should never have been caught and put in jail like they were” – Margie Shelps, 72, former Quakertown resident, now living in South Carolina. “If I had been here with other people then, I probably would have been walking around the Capitol like everyone else and I could have easily been put in jail,” Shelps said Sunday after taking photos at the Capitol.
But on Tuesday, officials began releasing inmates serving stern sentences, including former Philadelphia Proud Boys leader Zach Rehl, who was sentenced to 15 years for seditious conspiracy.
Trump did not mention a pardon on Jan. 6 in his inaugural address, but he raised the topic twice in subsequent speeches Monday and repeatedly referred to defendants during the Capitol riot as “hostages.”
While some pardons were expected, the scope of the pardons and the decision to commute more brutal sentences appeared to rattle several representatives, who said they had denied any mention of unity earlier in the day.
“You know, I’m not sure what to believe right now in terms of, you know, whether what he said in his rotunda speech had any significance,” Kim said. “Does he really believe he wants to be a unifier? Because I haven’t seen it in the last 24 hours.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who previously challenged the Trump administration in court as state attorney general, called the pardons “very, very disturbing.”
“The president, in his first few hours as leader of the free world, made a conscious decision to pardon people who attacked cops, to pardon people who vandalized parts of the Capitol,” Shapiro told reporters Tuesday at the state Capitol.
Statements from Pennsylvania and Delaware Democrats in Washington were even more scathing.
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat who represents part of Philadelphia, called the action “a disgrace to our country and our Constitution.”
“These thugs didn’t just break the law – they attacked the very foundations of our democracy,” Boyle said on the X program.
Rep. Dwight Evans, another Democrat from Philadelphia, said he was “disgusted” by the order. “A convicted felon president released criminals who brutally attacked police officers and tried to overturn the votes of Pennsylvanians,” he said.
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), an Iraq war veteran who represents western Pennsylvania, said Trump “should never have to live through this betrayal.”
Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat who was trapped in the House gallery as rioters stormed the Capitol, said that with his order, Trump “made it clear that his goal is political revenge and vindication, not improving lives.” the American people.”
Others were calmer, a good reminder that Trump’s actions often put more moderate representatives in difficult situations when asked to respond to him.
Senator Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), the freshman, who has frequently campaigned with Trump in 2024, declined to speak to a reporter on Capitol Hill. Sen. John Fetterman’s office did not respond to questions about his views on pardons, although it clarified that the Pennsylvania Democrat did not know who he was posing with after a Jan. 6 photo of him and the criminal came to X’s attention.
In Harrisburg, newly sworn-in Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity praised Trump’s executive actions on energy independence and border security. However, when asked about the January 6 pardons, she refused to comment.
“I don’t really have an opinion on this,” Garrity said.
For Kim, who helped officers clean up debris scattered across the floor of the rotunda after a riot four years ago, the thought that those who assaulted officers would not be held accountable is disheartening. This is the reality that some people are celebrating this decision.
Authors Gillian McGoldrick and Aliya Schneider contributed to this article.
