- Lindsey Graham said Trump was wrong to float pardons for Capitol rioters if he is reelected in 2024.
- Trump had said that those who stormed the Capitol needed to be treated fairly
Former President
Trump told a rally in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday that he would pardon those convicted of crimes related to January 6, 2021, if he won the 2024 presidential election.
"If I run and I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly," Trump told his supporters. "If it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly."
The following day, Graham told CBS' "Face the Nation" that Trump's call for pardons was "inappropriate," a suggestion to which Trump took offense.
"Lindsey Graham's wrong. Lindsey's a nice guy but he's a RINO," Trump told Newsmax host Rob Schmitt on Tuesday, using the acronym for "Republican in name only," an insult he has long used against his Republican critics.
"Lindsey Graham doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."
—Newsmax (@newsmax) February 2, 2022
As of Sunday, 768 people have been charged in connection with the
Graham had told CBS that he opposed the idea of pardons because there may be a violent backlash from some fringe groups.
"I don't want to send any signal that it was okay to defile the Capitol," Graham said. "There are other groups with causes that may want to go down the violent path if these people get pardoned."
From the Republican side, Graham is not alone in opposing the idea.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday: "What we saw here on January 6 was an effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another, which had never happened before in the history of our country.
"I would not be in favor of shortening any of the sentences for any of the people who pleaded guilty to crimes."
Trump told Newsmax that the January 6 defendants had been "persecuted," kept in filthy prisons and jails, and were being treated worse than those who perpetrated violence in Minnesota following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
Many Capitol riot defendants held in US jails have complained about of living conditions. Several jailed at the Central Detention Facility in Washington, DC, said they received threats from guards and saw standing sewage, as Insider's Sophia Ankel previously reported. In November, the US Marshals Service reported poor conditions in an older part of the jail complex, but not in the wing where the January 6 defendants were held.
Though Trump floated the idea of pardons, he has not formally announced that he will run again for president in 2024.
The New York Times reported that his political campaign had raised more than $122 million, more than the Republican Party's war chest.
In Trump's final weeks as president he issued a series of pardons to people including his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, his son-in-law's father Charles Kushner, and the rapper Lil Wayne.