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(Video: Newsmax)
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, is often seen by the grassroots populist base of the party as sometimes MAGA, sometimes Republican in Name Only [RINO], but according to ex-President Donald Trump, the “nice guy” is a full-on RINO.
In an interview with Newsmax, Trump reacted to a statement by Graham that pardons for the January 6 rioters would be “inappropriate.”
“I don’t want to reinforce that defiling the Capitol was okay. I don’t want to do anything that would make this more likely in the future,” Sen. Graham also said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Disagreeing with the South Carolina Republican, “I would absolutely give them a pardon if things don’t work out fairly,” the president declared on Newsmax, and Graham “doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”
At a massive rally on Saturday in Texas, Trump had floated the idea of potentially pardoning some of the “unfairly treated” individuals who breached the Capitol or who are accused of same if he wins the White House in 2024, assuming he becomes a candidate.
WATCH: @LindseyGrahamSC responds to President Trump dangling the possibility of pardons for January 6 Capitol rioters: "I think it is inappropriate. I don't want to reinforce that defiling the capitol is okay." pic.twitter.com/3HFTspixiY
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 30, 2022
As assessed by historian Victor Davis Hanson, “The January 6 riot was disgraceful. But it was a one-day spontaneous, chaotic, illegal entrance in and desecration of the Capitol by assorted buffoons…If these had been serious insurrectionists, they would have followed the Antifa model…”
“According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, more than 650 people have been charged over the January 6 riot. About 150 have pleaded guilty to storming the Capitol,” Newsweek reported.
Many of the J6 defendants are reportedly being denied standard due process, and in some instances, being held without bail in inhumane conditions. Many of them face trespass-related charges. Some have received long jail sentences that critics claim are excessive for their offenses.
When asked by Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt about Graham’s post-rally remarks, the former POTUS hardly minced words.
In so doing, he recalled in this context how the wrongdoers in the riots that swept the country in the summer of 2020 essentially got just a slap on the wrist, if at all.
“Lindsey Graham’s wrong,” Trump said. “I mean, Lindsey is a nice guy, but’s he’s a RINO.”
With reference to the rioting and looting, Trump recalled that “They tried to burn down Washington, we’re talking federal buildings; they were terrible. Every Democrat city was on fire, and nobody says anything about it.
“Antifa and BLM were causing such problems, including death.”
In contrast, the 45th president recalled that the only person killed in the J6 riot was unarmed U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer, who Trump described as a “ruthless man that never should have used his gun to shoot her. I think it’s a disgrace.”
“They’re not treating these people the same way,” Trump — who often used the term people interchangeably for those he is supporting or condemning — insisted about the J6 defendants as opposed to those involved in the nationwide civil disturbances.
“You don’t see, with all of the killing and all other fires and all of the burning, including federal buildings. They tried to burn down the courthouses. I stopped him in Minnesota, in Minneapolis; we sent in The National Guard.
“I am not even supposed to be doing that; that’s supposed to be up to the Democrat governor. These are all Democrat-run areas, but with all of that, you don’t see anybody going to jail and being treated like these people. These people are being treated horribly. I would absolutely — because some of them are being treated very unfairly — yeah, I would absolutely give them a pardon if things don’t work out fairly.”
Trump went on claim that the prison sentences are “20 times” out of proportion for their crimes, while the summer rioters are getting a “minimum sentence.” He also reminded viewers that VP Kamala Harris promoted the so-called Minnesota Freedom Fund.
Sen. Graham — who wants Trump to run again — also called out Harris for the same reason during the CBS interview.
“It’s a very unfair situation. Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and others, these radical-left people — and we give the vice president trying to bail everybody out of jail, but they weren’t in jail very long…and getting the bail was very easy,” Trump asserted.
“These people are in jail in a horrible, disgusting, dirty — so bad that the court system, which is very left, is angry that people have to live like this, and some of these people are not guilty.
“Many of these people are not guilty. What they’ve done to these, and, in many cases, patriots, they’re soldiers, they’re policemen, what they’ve done to them compared to what they’ve done to the other side.
“You have to have equal justice, and this isn’t equal, so I would absolutely be prepared — and Lindsey Graham, doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about if he says that, because you have to have equal justice. It’s very, very unfair, what’s happened to this group of people,” Trump concluded.
Perhaps laying the groundwork for a second White House run, Trump has begun hosting rallies again and has stepped up his media appearances. He also will be campaigning for the GOP in this year’s midterm elections and has also already started endorsing American First-style candidates.
Parenthetically, the congressional J6 investigative committee apparently is not trying to get to the bottom of why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her surrogates were allegedly unwilling to deploy the National Guard to prevent the “Stop the Steal” mostly peaceful protest from getting out of hand.
Tucker: Pelosi knows why Jan 6 riot happened, why won’t she tell us? https://t.co/yE9XJpeBq6 pic.twitter.com/OGvV7iyR8d
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) July 23, 2021
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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”
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