Sen. Andy Kim says Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons dishonor Capitol Police officer who died, as backlash mounts

WASHINGTON — Sen. Andy Kim walked into his Senate office in the basement of the U.S. Capitol complex Tuesday with tears in his eyes.

The freshman New Jersey Democrat had just gotten off the phone with the brother of Officer Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer from New Jersey who was attacked during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and died the next day after suffering two strokes. Now Sicknick’s family was reeling after President Donald J. Trump issued sweeping pardons to Jan. 6 offenders on his first day in office.

“They feel betrayed, and like whatever we called ‘rule of law’ doesn’t exist anymore,” Kim said. “We’re in a country where they won’t even have accountability for people who assaulted and ultimately killed a police officer. … They felt like Brian died in vain.”

Trump’s decision to pardon nearly all Jan. 6 defendants — including those who committed violent offenses against officers defending the Capitol that day — had Democrats and even some Republicans fuming Tuesday morning.

Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) called it a “terrible day for our Justice Department” and said there were huge contrasts between nonviolent protesters and “those individuals and people who assaulted police officers with sticks or their fists or pepper spray.”

“They have committed violent crimes and, to me, should not be pardoned. What message do you think this sends to the officers who were assaulted?” said Collins, one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump for incitement of insurrection four years ago.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) also criticized the decision in an interview with CNN. And Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican who represents Bucks County, said on Monday before the pardons came down that, as a former FBI agent, he is opposed to pardons generally.

Trump’s allies swiftly defended him.

“Some of these people have been in jail for a long time, doing a long time, and January 6 was a long time ago,” Rep. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) said at the Capitol.

The pardons fulfilled a campaign promise to Trump’s most faithful supporters and sent a message to his detractors in the process. The pardon order will affect roughly 1,500 people, including more than 150 people charged in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It represents one of the most expansive uses of pardon power in U.S. history since President Andrew Johnson issued a Christmas Day pardon of ex-Confederates in 1868.

Many of the most ardent supporters who flocked to Washington to see Trump inaugurated were rooting for the pardons hours before they came down, but even some of them specified they thought nonviolent incidents should be dismissed.

“Those J-sixers, many should never have been rounded up and put into prison like they were,” Margie Shelps, 72, a former Quakertown resident who now lives in South Carolina. “If I was here with the other people then, I would have probably been walking through the Capitol like everybody else was, and I could have easily been put in jail,” Shelps said Sunday after taking photos at the Capitol.

But on Tuesday, officials started releasing prisoners serving serious time, including ex-Philadelphia Proud Boys leader Zach Rehl, who had been sentenced to 15 years for seditious conspiracy.

Trump made no mention of Jan. 6 pardons in his inaugural address, but brought the topic up twice in subsequent speeches on Monday and repeatedly referred to the Capitol riot defendants as “hostages.”

While some pardons were expected, the scope of the pardons and the decision to issue commutations for more violent convictions seemed to shake several representatives, who said they negated mentions of unity earlier in the day.

“You know, I’m not sure what to believe right now, in terms of, you know, if there was any meaning to what he said in his speech in the rotunda,” Kim said. “Does he really believe that he wants to be a uniter? Because I didn’t see it in the last 24 hours.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who previously challenged the Trump administration in court as the state attorney general, called the pardons “very, very troubling.”

”The president, in his first few hours as the leader of the free world, made a conscious decision to pardon people who assaulted cops, to pardon people that destroyed pieces of the Capitol,” Shapiro told reporters Tuesday at the state Capitol.

Statements from Pennsylvania and Delaware Democrats in Washington were even more scathing.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat who represents parts of Philadelphia, called the action “a disgrace to our country and Constitution.”

“These thugs didn’t just break the law — they attacked the very foundation of our democracy,” Boyle said on X.

Rep. Dwight Evans, another Philadelphia Democrat, said he was “disgusted” by the order. “The convicted felon president set loose criminals who violently attacked police officers and tried to overturn Pennsylvanians’ votes,” he said.

Rep. Chris Deluzio (D., Pa.), an Iraq War veteran who represents Western Pennsylvania, said Trump should “never live this betrayal down.”

Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat who was trapped in the House gallery as rioters entered the Capitol, said that with the order, Trump “has clearly shown that his focus is political retribution and vindication, not improving the lives of the American people.”

Others were quieter, an early reminder of how Trump’s actions have often put more moderate representatives in difficult situations when asked to respond to him.

Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), a freshman who often campaigned with Trump in 2024, declined to talk to a reporter at the Capitol. Sen. John Fetterman’s office did not respond to questions about his opinion on the pardons, though the office did clarify that the Pennsylvania Democrat did not know whom he was posing with after a picture of him and a Jan 6. offender got attention on X.

In Harrisburg, newly sworn Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity had praise for Trump’s executive actions around energy independence and securing the border. But when asked about the Jan. 6 pardons, she declined to comment.

“I don’t really have an opinion on that,” Garrity said.

For Kim, who helped officers clean up debris scattered across the rotunda floor after the riot four years ago, the idea that people who assaulted officers there won’t be held accountable is upsetting. So is the reality that some people are celebrating the decision.

“An officer died protecting lawmakers of both parties,” Kim said. “And we’re at a point in America where, like, we can’t even agree on that, it just breaks my heart, in like a very fundamental way.”

Staff writers Gillian McGoldrick and Aliya Schneider contributed to this article.