President Donald Trump, during a press conference, expertly clapped back at an NBC News reporter during a testy exchange over his decision to pardon nearly 1,500 of the individuals who were convicted of crimes related to the riot at the United States Capitol building in 2021.
Peter Alexander brought up the pardons, noting that Trump “has long said that you back the blue” and asking if he is “sending the message that assaulting officers is okay, with these pardons.”
Trump replied, “No, the opposite,” and explained that he is releasing two Washington, D.C. police officers who were imprisoned for five years after arresting an illegal immigrant. “I am the friend of police. More than any president that's ever been in this office,” the president said.
Alexander then brought up comments made by Vice President JD Vance, who previously stated that the administration would pardon only those who did not commit violent offenses during the riot.
“More than 400 of the people that you pardoned the assaulted officers,” Alexander said. “I want to ask you about the vice president, JD Vance. This is a week ago. He said, ‘If you committed violence on January 6, obviously, you should not be pardoned.’ Why is your vice president wrong?”
Trump responded, saying those who were prosecuted “served years in jail” and that “they should not have served.”
The president continued as Alexander tried to interrupt him.
They've served years in jail, and murderers don't even go to jail in this country. We had 1,500. We have 16 under review. As you know, we commuted about 16 of them because it looks like they could have done things that were not acceptable for a full pardon. But these people have served years in jail… Their lives have been ruined.
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The reporter attempted to interject again, but Trump stopped him, saying, “Listen to me for a second. Stop interrupting. They've served years in jail. If you look at the American public, the American public is tired of it.”
Take a look at the election. Just look at the numbers on the election. We won this election in a landslide because the American public is tired of people like you that are just one-sided, horrible people in terms of crime. You don't talk about all the people that have been killed and what happens to those murderers. Murderers get no time. You take a look at some of these DAs. They go after political opponents, but they don't go after people that shoot people in the street.
The president continued, arguing that murderers tend to get away with their crimes and reiterated that “we pardoned people that were treated unbelievably poorly” and said the authorities “are still looking for them, but they’re not looking for the murderers, the people that are killing everybody.”
Democrats have been wringing their hands over the pardons, arguing that the J6ers should remain in prison – even the ones who simply strolled around the Capitol building. However, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) illustrated why these people have no leg to stand on during a recent exchange with reporters at the Capitol. He noted that former President Joe Biden paved the way for this by pardoning his son Hunter, other members of his family, and lawmakers who participated in the Democrats’ House Select Jan. 6 Committee.
“We said all along that Biden opened the door for this,” Thune said.
The reality is that most of those convicted for crimes related to the riot were completely railroaded by a politicized justice system. What would be a small fine in most cases turned into hostile prosecutions aimed at sending a message to those who support the president. If Democrats did not want Trump to eventually pardon these individuals, they should never have cheered the efforts to punish them for their politics.
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