Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he will pardon the January 6 rioters if he is elected the president of the US again.
"Oh, absolutely, I would. If they're innocent, I would pardon them. They were convicted by a very tough system,” stated Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on Wednesday.
January 6, 2021, saw the Capitol swarmed by protestors to stop the counting of the electoral college votes through a joint session of the Congress. The ballots were in Joe Biden's favour and the rioters wanted to see Trump in the White House for another four-year term.
The Capitol was swarmed by rioters on January 6, 2021, to prevent a joint session of Congress from counting the electoral college votes that were in favour of Joe Biden and the protesters wanted to keep Trump in power.
The tumult caused injury to more than 140 police officers who tried to contain the rioters.
When asked about pardoning the rioters, Trump asked what would happen to the people who attacked the Capitol last week — falsely referring to peaceful protests when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Congress.
However, the police had kept the demonstration from escalating.
“They viciously attacked our government, they fought with police, they fought with them much more openly than I saw on January 6,” Trump stated.
Rachel Scott of ABC News asked Trump again if he to be elected, would he pardon the January 6 rioters, the former president didn’t answer instead he brought up the officer who shot and killed a demonstrator.
Ashli Babbitt was a rioter at the January 6 events and she was shot and killed by a black officer as she jumped through a broken window leading to the House Speaker’s Lobby while Congress members were fleeing the mob as they were trying to break into the House chamber.
Trump further added that the authorities went after the January 6 protestors with a vengeance.
Trump has been advocating for the 600 convicted rioters of the January 6 events and in 2023, at a town hall hosted by CNN at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, he stated that he was “inclined to pardon many of them.”
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