[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 14 (Thursday, January 23, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S326-S327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           January 6 Pardons

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, in the United States, we believe in the 
peaceful transfer of power. In the United States, we believe that the 
people--not elected politicians--decide who is their President.
  And both of those principles have served our democracy very well 
through thick and thin, through strife and turmoil, for the past 248 
years.
  Both of those principles were challenged on January 6, 2021. A mob 
that was incited by then-President Trump attacked the Capitol for the 
explicit purpose of using violence to overturn the peaceful transfer of 
power.
  They were trying to intimidate elected politicians to substitute 
their judgment, their preferred candidate for President, instead of 
acknowledging the will of the people that they represented.
  But our democracy endured. That is the very good news. And in 
testament to that, we just witnessed a renewal of America's commitment 
to the peaceful transfer of power with the inauguration of Donald Trump 
as our 47th President.
  However, I speak today, sadly, about one of the first actions of 
President Trump, and that, of course, is pardoning 1,600 people and 
commuting sentences of 14 very dangerous criminals who were involved in 
that violent attack on January 6.
  Speaking for myself, I condemn that action by President Trump. I was 
there that day. Many of us were. I was in the Gallery of the House of 
Representatives. It is a day I won't forget, but America will never 
forget. It has had a deep impact on our country, the citizens, the 
folks who work here, and that honorable tradition of the peaceful 
transfer of power.
  You know, I was very amazed and proud to see officers--men and 
women--who withstood this assault. More than 150 officers from the U.S. 
Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police Department were injured 
that day. Five officers died in the aftermath, and there was severe 
damage to the Senate Chamber, the House Chamber, the office buildings, 
and the Capitol Rotunda, where we just had another inauguration only a 
few days ago.
  Blood, feces, glass, and other debris from the mob's attack was 
everywhere at a cost of close to $3 million.
  So how is it that one of the first acts of our President, who wants 
to be a unifier, was to pardon those people who acted with such 
violence, such anger, and such contempt?
  President Trump has tried to erase this attack and rewrite the 
history of what happened on January 6, calling the insurrectionists, 
including those who fought with the police, patriots and hostages. They 
were neither.
  Should the President of the United States pardon a person who was 
sentenced to 57 months in Federal prison for stealing a police riot 
shield from an officer and then using it to assault officers?
  Should a person who is affiliated with the neo-Nazi group and who was 
serving a sentence for breaking the law in Charlottesville in 2017 and 
who quoted Hitler before assaulting law enforcement in the U.S. 
Capitol, should that person be pardoned? I say no.

[[Page S327]]

  Should a President pardon a person who led an organization who 
orchestrated this riot after being convicted by a jury of impartial 
citizens and being convicted of seditious conspiracy? I say no.
  Should a President pardon a person who was sentenced to more than 6 
years for beating the police with a metal whip, assaulting them with 
bear spray--something that can cause lasting eye damage--should that 
person be pardoned? I say no.
  Should a person who, at his own trial, said he didn't think he was 
subject to the laws governing the United States and who, before 
storming the Capitol, bragged that what the British did to DC will be 
nothing compared to what he does? Should that person be pardoned? I say 
no.
  Should a person who said many of us should be hanged, should that 
person be pardoned? I say no.
  I am very proud of the men and women of our law enforcement 
community, U.S. Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan Police Department 
who stood their positions and defended the Capitol and defended the 
peaceful transfer of power. And I have in mind someone who was standing 
over me in the Capitol when I was in the Gallery and the mob was trying 
to break down the doors, breaking the glass of the House Chamber, and 
this officer was a young man who commuted to work from about an hour 
away. He had two young children. He had his gun out, and I looked in 
his face, and I could see the last thing in the world he wanted to do 
was have to use that weapon. But I saw that he was going to do his job 
and whatever was required to protect the people who were in that 
Gallery.
  And I just thought to myself, How is it that the people who are 
attacking could have such disregard for the reality of this person's 
life and how much it would change his life if he actually had to use 
that firearm?
  And I am proud, too, of Officer Brian Sicknick, who lost his life; 
Officer Howard Liebengood; Officer Jeffrey Smith; Officer Gunther 
Hashida; Officer Kyle DeFreytag, all of whom died in the aftermath of 
January 6th.
  These presidential pardons are disrespectful. They are also 
dangerous. They are disrespectful to the men and women who served, who 
suffered the violence, and are living with the consequences. And they 
are dangerous to the men and women of law enforcement who serve us 
every day. The pardons validate the violence of the mob and dishonor 
the service of those who protect us.
  These unconscionable and appalling actions of January 6 should be 
repudiated by every Member of Congress. And whatever differences we 
have, it is vital that those differences be resolved at the ballot box 
and that the will of the people always be respected.
  No citizen, however passionate they may be about their political 
beliefs, no matter how disappointed they may be at the outcome of an 
election, is justified in attacking the men and women of the Capitol 
Police. Their actions should be condemned by each of us and by our 
President. Those actions should not be condoned with pardons.
  I yield the floor.
  (Mr. MORENO assumed the Chair.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Britt). The Senator from Connecticut.