Jan. 6 pardons: Murkowski ‘strongly’ denounces as Sullivan says he needs to ‘see all the details’
WASHINGTON (KTUU) - On Jan. 6, 2021, Dan Sullivan linked arms with Lisa Murkowski as Alaska’s two U.S. senators ran through an underground tunnel, away from rioters invading the U.S. Capitol.
“As we were coming out, Sen. Murkowski grabbed my arm, mentioned my background as a Marine, and I said to her, ‘Let’s get out of here,’” Sullivan said during an interview with Alaska’s News Source in 2021. “Kind of went arm-in-arm down some steps, through some tunnels, and were told to relocate in one of the large conference rooms in one of the Senate office buildings.”
At the time, Sullivan said he wasn’t scared.
“I was just mad,” he said at the time.
The senators heard the yelling that day, saw the mob, and ran to safety.
This week, President Donald Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people who were charged in the attack on the Capitol, some of those very same people Sullivan and Murkowski ran from.
He also commuted the sentences of 14 people in the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers, two extremist groups who were charged with seditious conspiracy.
According to the Associated Press, among the people pardoned by Trump, more than 200 pleaded guilty to assaulting police with at least 140 officers injured during the riot. Many were beaten, bloodied, and crushed by the crowd as Trump’s supporters rushed the building.
That’s something Murkowski takes issue with.
“I don’t think that the approach of a blanket pardon that includes those who caused harm, physical harm, to our police officers, to others that resulted in violence, I’m disappointed to see that,” Murkowski said to reporters in D.C. this week. “And I do fear the message that is sent to these great men and women that stood by us.”
Murkowski also took to X to express her opinions, saying: “The Capitol Police officers are the backbone of Congress— every day they protect and serve the halls of democracy. I strongly denounce the blanket pardons given to the violent offenders who assaulted these brave men and women in uniform.”
Asked about the pardons this week, Sullivan first brought up former President Joe Biden’s own pardons before leaving office.
“He commuted some of the most horrific murderers — this is Biden now — I think 37 of the most vicious murderers who are on death row,” Sullivan said during an interview on Tuesday, “Commuted all their sentences to life in prison.”
Asked again by Alaska’s News Source about Trump’s pardons, Sullivan said he needed more information.
“I have not seen the details. I do know there’s some people that were just on the Capitol grounds who did not commit violence. Those are the kind of things, I think that the kind of action the president took might be appropriate, but you’re making a point that is correct: since Jan. 6, I have said — like Vice President Vance just said last week — that as a general rule, if somebody committed an act of violence against a law enforcement officer, then they should be held accountable and I still believe that,” Sullivan said.
Alaska’s News Source then asked if that means that’s an area Sullivan disagrees with the president, in terms of pardons.
“Again, I need to see all the details, but you know, as I said, I’m a huge, huge supporter of our law enforcement,” Sullivan replied. “And as I said on Jan. 6, and interestingly enough, Vice President JD Vance just last week, said the same thing: if someone committed an act of violence against a law enforcement official, I think those individuals should be held accountable.
“Now have they been in jail long enough? Again, this is why these were individual cases, but as a general principle, I still believe what I said on Jan. 6. I still believe that today.”
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