President Donald Trump’s grant of clemency this week to the rioters who assaulted the U.S. Capitol four years ago deepened a political divide over a mob attack that Georgia leaders from both parties once universally condemned as a threat to democracy.
Many top Georgia Republicans defend the president’s decision to pardon more than 1,500 people, including 44 with Georgia ties, charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack that Trump has tried to rebrand as a patriotic movement to protest his election defeat.
Other prominent Trump allies in Georgia sought to deflect criticism by noting that President Joe Biden issued his own controversial pardons to close relatives and members of the House Jan. 6 Committee that investigated the attack.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Almost all refused to rebuke Trump’s attempt to erase the crimes of the Jan. 6 attackers. One exception was Gov. Brian Kemp, who could seek the presidency himself in 2028. The second-term Republican took aim at the dueling pardons issued by both Biden and Trump.
“Anyone who harms a law enforcement officer should be held fully accountable for their actions,” Kemp said, “and presidents should not issue blanket, preemptive pardons for their family members in the final minutes of their tenure.”
Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, who launched his campaign for governor in November, also said he doesn’t “like the idea of blanket pardons for family members or for anyone who assaulted law-enforcement officers.”
While Republicans were all over the map, Georgia Democrats uniformly condemned Trump’s exoneration of the rioters who heeded the president’s call to descend on the Capitol as congressional lawmakers prepared to certify Biden’s victory.
Many of them were echoing Trump’s false claims that Biden’s win was “rigged,” a lie that Trump has maintained even after a decisive victory in November 2024 returned him to the White House.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a potential 2026 candidate run for governor, blasted Trump’s attempt to paint the rioters as victims of an overzealous Justice Department and called the pardons a disservice to Capitol officers on the front lines of the mob.
“Members of law enforcement laid their lives on the line to protect American democracy on Jan. 6,” said McBath. “Now, these officers and their families live with the knowledge that their violent attackers have been set free.”
‘Unprecedented abuse’
Though Trump’s pardons were among a blizzard of directives issued shortly after he was sworn in, Democrats predict they will resonate through the 2026 midterm, when U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff stands for reelection and the governor’s office is up for grabs.
Ossoff, whose reelection chances hinge on winning some Trump voters, said he’s “got a problem with a lot of the pardons that Biden issued on the way out.”
But the Atlanta Democrat, who won his 2021 runoff victory the day before the rioters ransacked the U.S. Capitol, was unequivocal in opposing Trump’s “unprecedented abuse of the pardon power.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
He issued a scathing statement that slammed Trump for extending clemency to those “who overran the U.S. Capitol, desecrated the seat of our democracy and assaulted law enforcement in their failed attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.”
Other Democrats pointed to a Marist poll conducted days before Trump took office that showed nearly two-thirds of Americans, including about 30% of Republicans, disapproved of Trump pardoning people involved in the attempt to block Biden’s victory. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said Trump gave supporters a “permission structure to excuse political violence, including assaulting law enforcement.”
“These pardons go beyond partisan politics, they are a blow to our moral and spiritual fight for the accountability we need after a violent attempt to disenfranchise millions of Georgia voters.”
Several Republicans didn’t directly defend Trump’s decision, but instead chastised Biden for his unprecedented last-minute pardons of his siblings and their spouses, a move the outgoing president said was designed to prevent possible retribution by Trump.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
“We have had a one-sided justice system in this country for too long that culminated with President Biden pardoning his entire family in the final hours of his disastrous presidency,” said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is expected to compete with Carr for the GOP nomination for governor.
‘Dangerous precedent’
U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, who is considering a challenge to Ossoff, focused on the flip side of the dueling presidential pardons. He said Biden’s pardons set “a dangerous precedent that has never been done in the history of the United States.”
The preemptive pardons were an extraordinary use of Biden’s presidential power, since none of its recipients were charged with any crime. Some Democrats and legal scholars worry Trump could take similar steps to protect his own allies from criminal prosecution.
And Insurance Commissioner John King, another potential Republican Senate contender, said Democrats have no grounds to grouse after Biden “carried out witch hunts” against Trump and his supporters.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
“His weapons were excessive sentences and the Department of Justice itself,” said King, echoing Trump’s longs-standing claims that the criminal justice system was weaponized against him. “President Trump ran on stopping it, and that’s what he’s doing.”
Other Trump loyalists were unflinching in their support for the pardons. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, who could seek statewide office, described the members of the mob as protesters who “took photos and explored the building” before being “hunted down” by prosecutors who treated them unfairly.
And U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she directly lobbied the president to issue the blanket pardons after making multiple visits to Jan. 6 defendants in jail.
“I think they all should be pardoned,” Greene told reporters. “And I think this country should never allow this type of abuse of our justice system again.”
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
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