New Senate Majority Leader Thune talks taxes, Trump pardons and confirmations, on Sunday talk show

The new Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, R-S.D., said that pardons of Jan. 6 defendants is a decision that is for President-elect Donald Trump to make, and that Trump’s picks for his Cabinet will get a “fair process” in the new session of Congress. 

Appearing on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” with host Kristen Welker, Thune was asked how he felt about Trump’s plans to pardon the Jan. 6 defendants, including even some who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers, according to The Hill. 

“Well, as we've discovered under the Biden administration, the pardon authority is a very broad one. I mean, he's taken it to a whole new level. That's ultimately going to be a decision that President Trump is going to have to make,” Thune said of the pardons.

Welker asked Thune if he was concerned that Trump’s planned tax cuts would grow the national debt even worse than it is now. He replied that “we intend to ensure that we don't have a $4 trillion tax increase on the American people by December 31 of this year. And in order to do that, we've got to act collectively, House, Senate, and White House, to extend the 2017 tax cuts.”

Regarding the issue of confirming Trump’s picks for his Cabinet, “What I’ve promised them is a fair process,” Thune said. “And so, these nominees are going to go through a committee where they’re going to have to answer questions. There will be some hard questions posed.”

Thune highlighted the desire to provide Trump with the Cabinet he wants but noted that the Senate has a role to “advise and consent,” particularly regarding his national security choices.

“We have a lot of our senators who take that role very seriously,” he said. 

“And so, we will make sure that these nominees have a process, a fair process, in which they have an opportunity to make their cases not only to the members of the committee and ultimately to the full Senate but also to the American people.”