US: Republicans contradict Trump as ex-President seeks pardon for Capitol rioters

Nearly two days after the former US President Donald Trump advocated for the release of Capitol rioters, his colleague Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other GOP senators seem distancing themselves from Trump's opinion. While addressing a press conference on Tuesday, McConnell staunchly distanced himself from Trump's remarks and added he would not be in favour of shortening any of the sentences for any of the people who pleaded guilty to crimes. When the reporter asked McConnell about the comments of the former president offering pardons to people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, he replied, "I would not be in favour of shortening any of the sentences for any of the people who pleaded guilty to crimes."

Watch McConnell comments on the Capitol attack here:

Further, he said the Capitol rioters must be seen without any political connection. According to him, the rioters were wishing to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another, which has never happened before in America." "The election of 2020 was decided December 14 of 2020 when the Electoral College certified the winner of the election. What we saw here on January 6th was an effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another, which has never happened before in our country," McConnell said during the presser.

What Trump had said during the Texas rally?

Watch:

Notably, on January 29, while addressing a rally in Texas, Trump had assured January 6 rioters to pardon if his government comes into power in 2024. Also, he assured the rioters to be "treated fairly" as they were already tortured unfairly by the incumbent Biden administration."If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly, we will treat them fairly, and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly," Trump had said to his supporters. It is worth mentioning the United States had witnessed a black day for democracy as a group of supporters of the former President attacked the US Capitol following the victory of Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. The protestors entered the US Capitol in a bid to protest the lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election results from several states, which Trump said were fraudulent. One protester was shot dead during the incident and, the law enforcement authorities charged over 700 people for engaging in the riots.

Image: AP