US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to make rapid and significant changes after taking office on January 20, including pardons for anyone convicted in the attack on the US Capitol.
In an interview with Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump blamed US President Joe Biden for dividing the country but struck a conciliatory note, saying he will not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden. “I’m not looking to go back into the past,” he said. “Retribution will be through success.”
However, Trump had some tough words for former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney and other lawmakers who served on the bipartisan House committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol, saying she “should go to jail”.
“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with [Bennie] Thompson and the people on the … committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps.
“They deleted and destroyed all evidence,” Trump said, adding that those responsible were Cheney and Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat. “For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.”
Trump said that his children will not serve as White House aides, a break from his previous tenure, when daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner both worked as senior advisers in West Wing offices. “I’ll miss them,” he admitted.
Meanwhile, Cheney described the threat by Trump to imprison her alongside others as an “assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.” “Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power,” Cheney said in a statement, where she also called for the Justice Department special counsel, Jack Smith, to release evidence he gathered into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team and the incoming White House press secretary, said the next administration wants to “shatter the Deep State,” a term for entrenched civil servants who have frustrated Trump and his allies.
“President Trump was re-elected by a resounding mandate from the American people to change the status quo in Washington,” she said in a statement. “That’s why he has chosen brilliant and highly-respected outsiders to serve in his Administration, and he will continue to stand behind them as they fight against all those who seek to derail the MAGA Agenda.”
Trump is taking on Washington with the Department of Government Efficiency, an independent advisory body led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Musk, the world’s richest man, intends to provide proposals for significantly decreasing federal spending and the government personnel. He also suggested that Trump avoid Congress whenever possible, risking a constitutional crisis.
