Rachel Maddow asked Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) about Republicans in Congress trying to get preemptive pardons as evidence of crimes.
Video:
Maddow asked Schiff:
There was a provocative piece of evidence described tonight, by Liz Cheney about unnamed Republican members of congress. She said during her opening statement, Republican congressman Scott Perry, was involved in trying to get Jeffrey Clark, appointed as attorney general, which was described as trying to get the Justice Department to use lies to put the weight of the department behind the effort to steal the election result for President Trump.
Representative Perry has refused to testify here, as you will, see you contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6th, to seek a presidential pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. We have seen some things pointing at this in the past, never seen it put that bluntly before. Is the implication of this evidence that the committee has collected, that members of Congress, Republican members of congress, committed what they believe to be crimes? In this plot, and thereby, therefore, sought pardons from the president before he left office?
Schiff answered, “Well look, I think the fact that members of congress were interested in trying to get a preemptive pardon for their role in the efforts to overturn their election, tells you a lot about their consciousness of guilt. If they thought what they were doing was above board, and of course no need for a pardon. This is part of the reason we wanted these members to testify. It’s probably one of the reasons why they refused to testify. But nonetheless, it gives a public a sense of just the depth of information we have been able to accumulate.”
The fact that the committee knows that multiple Republicans in Congress sought preemptive pardons is damning and it could wreck the midterm election for the GOP.
Republicans wouldn’t think that they needed pardons if they didn’t believe that they committed crimes during Trump’s attempted coup.
Rachel Maddow seized on a key piece of evidence that the coup plot goes beyond the White House and through Republicans in Congress.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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