Republican senators on Monday remembered the Capitol riot as a dark day, not directly weighing in on President-elect Donald Trump’s assertion that January 6, 2021, was a “day of love.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN’s Manu Raju, “I was here, and I’ve said what I have to say about that day and I’m now looking forward.”
Asked about Trump potentially issuing a blanket pardon for January 6 rioters, the South Dakota senator responded, “The pardon authority is one that the president exercises, and you’ve seen President Biden recently use it more broadly than any president in history.”
Thune said it’s Trump’s call on how to proceed, adding, “my assumption is he’ll look at these on a case-by-case basis.”
Asked whether he agrees with Trump that it was a “day of love,” Sen. John Curtis of Utah, who now occupies Mitt Romney’s former seat, said, “Not for me, no.”
“It was not our country’s best day. It was not a good look for us,” said Curtis, who served in the House at the time.
Curtis wouldn’t answer directly when asked whether Trump held any responsibility.
“We still don’t have answers about what happened that day and what didn’t happen that day, and I wish we did,” he told Raju.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who famously said “count me out” on the evening of January 6 after rioters stormed the Capitol and some of his colleagues continued to reject the election results, told Raju that “four years ago was a dark day in American history. The system worked.”
“In my view, that election was certified. This one will be certified peacefully. I’m grateful for that,” he continued.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana recalled, “what I saw was a peaceful protest that turned into a riot,” adding that “people were prosecuted, and many paid the consequences.”
He said he expects Trump’s legal team to review “every single case” of people prosecuted for storming the Capitol and make sure the “punishments meted out” were “proportional to the crime,” saying that people are concerned about the Justice Department being “politicized.”
This post was updated with Thune’s comments.
