Republican Senator Graham calls Trump’s Jan 6 pardons a ‘mistake’

WASHINGTON: Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, criticised on Sunday the president’s pardon of about 1,500 of his supporters who attacked the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, saying it could lead to more violence.

Graham said that while Trump had the legal authority to issue the pardons: “Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think was a mistake. Because it seems to suggest that’s an OK thing to do.”

As a result, “I fear that you will get more violence,” Graham, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme.

Meanwhile, two senior Republican senators on Sunday urged US President Donald Trump to reconsider his decision to revoke security protection for several top officials from his first administration, some of them highly critical of his policies.

Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton are believed to be under threat from Iran for overseeing the 2020 US drone strike -- ordered by Trump -- that killed powerful Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

And Anthony Fauci, who led the country´s fight against Covid-19 starting in Trump´s first term, has received death threats, including from some Trump supporters, over his handling of the pandemic.

Trump has defended the decision to revoke their security details, saying Friday they were not life-long privileges.

But Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, and veteran Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant, urged the president to reconsider.

“I would encourage the president to revisit that decision for those being targeted by Iran,” Cotton said on “Fox News Sunday.” Officials might be wary of giving a president their unvarnished advice if they feared possible future reprisals from “China or the Mexican drug cartels,” Cotton said.