Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), former chair of the Jan. 6 committee, stated in a Thursday interview that he would settle for a preemptive pardon from President Biden if he supplied one.
CNN’s Jim Acosta requested Thompson whether or not he needed Biden to increase the pardon provide — in mild of latest reporting that Biden was contemplating utilizing the pardon energy to guard these he feared could also be focused in Trump’s second time period.
“The president, it’s his prerogative,” Thompson stated about whether or not he desires Biden to preemptively pardon him. “If he offers it, to me or other members of the committee, I think it, I would accept it, but it’s his choice.”
Thompson famous the committee’s workers and the witnesses equally did “nothing wrong,” and he fiercely defended the committee’s work.
“I think the staff of the committee who did a wonderful job; I think the witnesses who were primarily Republicans did a great job under oath. They were not found to have perjured themselves or anything like that,” Thompson continued.
“We’ve had two years of review by Republican chairpersons. They found nothing wrong,” he stated. “We stand by the work of the committee. Our committee did a wonderful job. We shared it with the public, and all the public has to do is to read the report that we filed based on our report.”
Trump has often focused members of the previous Home committee that investigated the Capitol assault and Trump’s function within the lead-up to that day.
Trump repeated his grievances in regards to the panel in his first postelection interview on Sunday, mentioning Thompson and former Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) by title and saying he thinks the panel members needs to be jailed.
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump advised NBC Information’s Kristen Welker, referring to the panel’s members. Trump added, nevertheless, that he wouldn’t instruct his prime regulation enforcement officers to jail the panel’s members.
On whether or not he is involved about Trump’s remarks, Thompson stated Thursday that Congress established the panel and that members have been following the regulation by serving on the committee.
“We operated based on our direction from Congress,” Thompson stated. “I hope the president would take that into consideration.”
Thompson stated it was “so unfortunate” that disagreeing with somebody might elevate the prospect of jail time, saying that goes towards American values.
“But to be honest with you, Jim, we’ve not done anything wrong,” Thompson continued. “What we did was, in fact, what the law prescribed, what the resolution we were given, and we’re comfortable with our report. There’s nothing that we omitted in the report or anything like that.”
“Being in disagreement with a person is not a reason to lock them up. This is the House, where we debate issues, where we debate laws. Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong. That doesn’t mean you’re illegal, and it doesn’t mean that because you’re wrong in the eyes of someone, you should go to jail. That’s just so unfortunate, and that’s not who we are as Americans.”
