Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said President Trump showed a disregard for police officers after granting roughly 1,500 Capitol insurrectionists pardons on Monday.
“One thing is abundantly clear. He doesn’t give a rat’s a– about law enforcement. That much is clear,” Schiff said during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Last Word.”
Schiff echoed the rhetoric of lawmakers from across the country in condemning one of Trump’s first acts while in office and questioning his motives. Members of law enforcement have also said they feel betrayed by the move.
“In giving these violent offenders these pardons, he is essentially telling people who would commit violence on his behalf that he has their back, that he will pardon them if they commit violence in the service of Donald Trump,” Schiff told anchor Lawrence O’Donnell.
“And you would be hard-pressed to find a country that has gone from a democracy to a dictatorship without finding this step of essentially pardoning people who commit violence on behalf of the would-be dictator.”
However, the Democrat warned that he does not think the country is completely going to bend to a government leader with absolute power.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re gonna become a dictatorship. But it does mean that we have taken one tragic step in that direction,” Schiff stated.
His fellow party members say they are evaluating the limits on presidential pardons following Trump’s mass clemency move, as well as former President Biden’s final acts of clemency.
“There’s got to be some criteria,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) told The Hill.
“I say that particularly for [Trump]. There’s not an equivalence, even remotely, between him and President Biden. But still, it’s a very archaic law. And it needs to be looked at. And there should be some criteria, and some role for Congress.”
