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Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Wednesday criticized Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for defending President Trump’s recent pardons for rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I’m speaking as a Christian here, I saw Speaker Johnson say, ‘We believe in redemption,’” Kinzinger said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” “How dare you use the Bible in this?”
“I mean, don’t talk about repentance, Speaker Johnson, defend this,” Kinzinger added later. “Go out and defend that there’s these criminals on the street now, do that. I’ll respect if you do it.”
Kinzinger’s remarks were first highlighted by Mediaite.
On Trump’s first day back in office, nearly all Jan. 6 defendants received a pardon from the president. About 1,500 rioters were given “full, complete and unconditional pardons,” Trump said Monday night. Individuals who assaulted police officers amid the Jan. 6 riot were among those who got pardons this week.
“The president’s made his decision. I don’t second-guess those,” Johnson said, commenting on the pardons Wednesday.
“It’s kind of my ethos, my worldview: We believe in redemption. We believe in second chances,” the Louisiana Republican continued. “You could argue that those people didn’t pay that heavy penalty, having been incarcerated and all of that. That’s up to you. But the president’s made a decision. We move forward. There are better days ahead of us.”
The Jan. 6 pardons rattled Republican lawmakers who had front-row seats to the chaos on Capitol Hill four years ago. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) expressed his unease about those “convicted of violent crime” being pardoned in a previous statement.
“It is wrong to pardon individuals convicted of violent crime, especially when many of the victims of their violence were law enforcement officers,” Moran said.
While Moran’s view about the pardons is shared by a large group of his fellow GOP senators, many of them are hesitant to go forward with criticism of the president.
“I’m a hundred percent confident that everybody that’s supporting these pardons, everybody that was pardoned and the president himself [will] go down in history very, very scorned,” Kinzinger said Wednesday.
The Hill has reached out to Johnson’s office and the White House for comment.
