GOP senator surprised by Trump’s ‘blanket pardon’ of Jan. 6 defendants

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Now let's turn to congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins, who was in the Capitol during that insurrection four years ago and joins us now.

  Lisa, what are you hearing in terms of how lawmakers are reacting to those pardons?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  That's right.

  Democrats on Capitol Hill openly outraged over those pardons.

  Republicans also, privately, most of them that I talk to are also very unhappy and frustrated, but they're navigating this world where Donald Trump is the president and the leader of their party. They have been navigating the idea of, how do they express this in public?

  Remember, these are people who personally were fearful for their lives by these same attackers. They know police officers, as do I, who were harmed, over a 100 of them harmed. These are people who were pardoned who smashed police officers with bats and the like.

  So, today, we did hear some Republicans coming out a little bit more, trying to navigate this world and expressing that they are openly frustrated.

• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC):

  I'm about to file two bills that will increase the penalties up to and including the death penalty for the murder of a police officer and increasing the penalties and creating federal crimes for assaulting a police officer. That should give you everything you need to know about my position.

  It was surprising to me that it was a blanket pardon. Now I'm going through the details.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Senator Tillis also criticized President Biden for his pardons.

  But this is a lesson to members of Congress that Donald Trump, his priorities is not them. His priorities is him, his supporters, and that he doesn't compromise and he doesn't care if they tell him he shouldn't do this.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Meanwhile, Republican leaders in Congress had their first strategy session with President Trump at the White House today. What should we know about that?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  It was an important meeting. There is strategy talk. They were there for two hours.

  But I want to point out something about this dynamic here. President Trump comes in with four years of experience in office. Let's look at those who met with today. Speaker Mike Johnson, he's been in office just over a year. John Thune, the new majority leader, just for 18 years — 18 days.

  And as Amy Walter and I both like to talk about, 68 percent of the House arrived after 2016. So Donald Trump here, Congress really kind of works with him more than him working with them at this point.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Finally, I know you're tracking the confirmation process for his nominees. Where do things stand?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Right.

  So we expect more confirmations this week, especially Pete Hegseth for the Department of Defense. We could see that confirmation this weekend. That looks like where it is. What we don't know anything about is two of the big high-profile nominees, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and also RFK, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for Health and Human Services.

  No hearings have been scheduled. We have not seen them on Capitol Hill for a few days. So we're not sure where that stands. But, so far, everyone in the Trump administration says they're gung-ho for them, but no update on timing for them.

• Amna Nawaz:

  All right, our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  You're welcome.