'Damn shame': Republican slams Trump on Senate floor for freeing 'bad people' from prison

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) slammed President Donald Trump's decision to give blanket clemency to almost every single person involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol during a speech in the Senate marking the fifth anniversary of the event.

Trump granted full pardons to around 1,500 people, including those who violently attacked police officers. Just the ringleaders of far-right paramilitary groups like the Oath Keepers, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy, did not receive outright pardons. Even so, their sentences were commuted, springing them from prison.

“It’s a damn shame they’re out because three dozen of them have been arrested for another crime,” said Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his Senate term next January and has become gradually more outspoken against Trump administration policies. “I support President Trump ... however, we acted on bad advice, we let bad people go.”

A number of those three dozen received serious charges, including Kyle Colton, who was convicted of possessing child sex abuse pictures. Another, Matthew Huttle, was shot dead while allegedly resisting arrest in an Indiana State Police traffic stop.

Tillis also thanked the law enforcement officers who defended Congress as the rioters tried to stop the certification of the electoral count, saying, “it was a wonderful stress test for democracy ... the reason it prevailed is because of the staff and law enforcement officers.”

A plaque was commissioned to honor law enforcement that protected the Capitol, but there is still no apparent movement by House GOP officials to install it, despite it being required by federal law, and its whereabouts are unknown.

All of this comes as the Trump administration rolls out a website loaded with far-right propaganda and lies about the events of Jan. 6, including the claim that Capitol Police instigated the violence, that the 2020 election was rigged and the protesters were justified, and that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was to blame for any security failures around the event.