McConnell: Trump pardons a ‘mistake,’ Jan. 6 ‘an insurrection’

Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was a “mistake” for President Trump to pardon individuals convicted of crimes connected to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I think pardoning people who’ve been convicted is a mistake,” McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, told CBS’s Lesley Stahl in Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast.

Hours after taking office, Trump pardoned nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged in connection with the riot. He commuted the sentences of about a dozen others who did not receive pardons. 

Trump also ordered the Justice Department to throw out any pending indictments against Jan. 6 defendants whose cases haven’t yet been adjudicated, covering about 470 people. 

About 600 people were accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding police during the turmoil, and 10 were convicted of sedition, the most serious charge that was brought against any individual resulting from that day. 

Asked to describe his relationship with Trump, McConnell said, “Well, we haven’t spoken for quite a while. I was very upset about what happened Jan. 6.”

McConnell fiercely criticized Trump after the Capitol attack. He did not vote to convict Trump for his actions surrounding the Capitol attack but said the current and former president still bears responsibility for his actions.

“Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said in a Senate floor speech after Trump was acquitted in 2021.  

In the “60 Minutes” interview, McConnell added: “That’s the way I still feel about it.”

Stahl asked McConnell about “Trump and his supporters trying to change what happened on Jan. 6.”

“They’re calling it a day of love. They call the rioters martyrs,” she noted.

“Yeah, no, it was an insurrection,” McConnell responded.