Violent Jan. 6 rioters shouldn’t be part of Trump pardons, says incoming vice-president

U.S. vice-president-elect J.D. Vance said Sunday that people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot “obviously” should not be pardoned.

President-elect Donald Trump is promising to use his clemency power on behalf of many of those who tried on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the results of the election that Trump lost.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Vance said that the pardon question is “very simple,” saying those who “protested peacefully” should be pardoned and “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” He later said there was a “bit of a grey area” in some cases.

Trump said he would issue pardons to rioters on “Day 1” of his presidency, which begins Jan. 20. “Most likely, I’ll do it very quickly,” he said recently on NBC’s Meet the Press. 

“Those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it,” he added. “I have to look. But, you know, if somebody was radical, crazy.”

WATCH | Reporter tracks down Jan. 6 protester who told her to ‘run’: 

Reporter tracks down Jan. 6 protester who told her to ‘run’

On Jan. 6, 2021, an angry mob of Donald Trump supporters swarmed a CBC News crew working near Capitol Hill. Nearly four years later, reporter Katie Nicholson tracked down one of the people who surrounded her that day to find out what she’s thinking heading into another volatile U.S. presidential election.

More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the siege that left more than 100 police officers injured and sent lawmakers running into hiding as they met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Hundreds of people who did not engage in destruction or violence were charged only with misdemeanor offences for illegally entering the Capitol. Others were charged with felony offences, including assault for beating police officers. Leaders of two extremist groups, Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as plots to use violence to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Biden.

In a post on X, Vance responded to criticism from supporters of the Capitol rioters that his position did not go far enough to free all convicted. “I’ve been defending these guys for years,” he said.

“The president saying he’ll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walk-back,” Vance said. “I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial.”