Bernie Sanders Says Biden Should Consider Preemptive Pardons ‘Very Seriously’
December 16, 2024
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Senator Bernie Sanders believes President Joe Biden should contemplate issuing preemptive pardons to members of the January 6 House Select Committee in light of President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to prosecute them.
“I think he might want to consider that very seriously,” the Vermont senator said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
His statement was in response to an interview Trump had with NBC journalist Kristen Welker on December 8, who asked the president-elect whether his administration would “pursue” individuals such as Liz Cheney, Senator Adam Schiff or former chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci.
Senator Bernie Sanders is seen outside the Senate Chamber after Senate Democrats held their leadership elections in the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on December 3, 2024. On December 15, Sanders said that President Biden… Senator Bernie Sanders is seen outside the Senate Chamber after Senate Democrats held their leadership elections in the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on December 3, 2024. On December 15, Sanders said that President Biden should “very seriously” consider issuing preemptive pardons for those who sat on the January 6 House Select Committee.
Aaron Schwartz/Sipa via AP Images
“I think those people committed a major crime,” Trump said told Welker, “and [Liz] Cheney was behind it, and so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee.”
The select committee was formed in mid-2021 to investigate the events leading up to and surrounding the riots and storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Chaired by Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, with Cheney serving as vice chair, the select committee was dissolved in January 2023 after referring several individuals, including Trump, to the Department of Justice for prosecution.
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump added in the interview.
Sen. Sanders told NBC on Sunday, December 15 that Trump’s threat should compel the incumbent administration to consider preemptive pardons for the entire nine-member January 6 committee.
He said: “That is an outrageous statement. This is what authoritarianism is all about, it’s what dictatorship is all about. You do not arrest elected officials who disagree with you, who undertake an investigation.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump transition team via email outside of business hours, and will update this article if a response is received.
What Is a Preemptive Pardon?
Presidential pardons—or acts of executive clemency—have historically been used to exonerate individuals convicted of a past crime. However the constitution grants the president the power to preemptively excuse individuals, the most famous case being Gerald Ford granting President Nixon a pardon for his role in the Watergate scandal.
President Biden is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for several individuals, over fears that they may face retributive prosecution under the next administration.
Who Could Joe Biden Pardon?
In her question to Sen. Sanders, NBC’s Welker specifically mentioned the members of the House Select Committee who Trump has accused of concealing or destroying evidence collected during their investigation.
The committee itself included seven House Democrats and two Republicans, Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
Welker also brought up immunologist Fauci and California Sen. Schiff, who served as prosecutor during Trump’s first impeachment trial, as names that were reportedly being considered by Biden for preemptive pardons.
Schiff himself has urged the president not to consider this measure, telling NPR in November that doing so “would seem defensive and unnecessary.”
“I think the courts are strong enough to withstand the worst of his threats,” he said. “And I don’t think a preemptive pardon makes sense.”
Congressman Brendan F. Boyle, however, has urged Biden to issue “a blanket pardon” for anyone targeted by the incoming administration’s “weaponization” of the Justice Department.
Boyle’s call came in response to the president-elect announcing Kash Patel as his nominee for FBI director, and Patel’s supposed “enemies list” published in his 2023 book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.
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