Thune on Jan. 6 pardons: ‘Biden opened the door’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said “Biden opened the door on this” when asked Tuesday about President Trump’s sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 protesters, including those convicted of assaulting Capitol police officers.

“We said all along that Biden opened the door on this,” Thune said, referring to former President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter on gun- and tax-related charges.

Trump has pardoned, commuted the sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of more than 1,500 people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.

Other Senate Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump on the charge of inciting insurrection, declined to comment on the pardons Tuesday morning.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told a CNN reporter Tuesday that she would be disappointed if Trump pardoned people convicted of assaulting police but said she would study the full extent of his pardons.

She also cited Biden’s pardons of Hunter Biden, and five other family members he preemptively pardoned, including his brother James, moments before Trump was sworn into office.