A Democratic lawmaker excoriated Donald Trump's promise to pardon his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The president-elect said he would "most likely" pardon at least some of the rioters on "Day One" of his second term, and Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) told CNN that Trump's campaign pledge was offensively wrong.
"It's just offensive," Kildee said. "I mean, I was there, I saw it firsthand — people attacked the Capitol, they beat police officers, people died. Had they gotten through past those officers, what they would have done to some of us who were trapped in that gallery on that terrible day.
"We don't know what they would have done, and the very notion that the people Democrats and Republicans who were trying to hold those individuals accountable would, in Donald Trump's mind, be those who are culpable and he would somehow see these attackers, this mob, this unruly, dangerous mob is somehow being righteous – either he's intentionally stupid, which I'm not sure how much he understands about how the rule of law ought to function in society, or he just has so much more in common with some of these totalitarian dictators that he seems to align himself with, that he's willing to do these sorts of things."
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Kildee hedged on whether President Joe Biden should extend preemptive pardons to members of the Jan. 6 committee who Trump has threatened with prosecution.
"I'm not a lawyer, and I don't really agree with the presidential authority to offer pardons, no matter who it is," Kildee said. "But I do think we're at an incredibly important inflection point. I would hate to see people who are simply trying to do their job to protect this country, suddenly become the victim of a totalitarian-leaning president."