Of all the things that Donald Trump did on day one of his presidency — and he did a lot of things, signing more than 200 executive orders — none might have been more controversial than pardoning nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Already, two of the most far-right extremists — Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers — have been set free. Tarrio was serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy. Rhodes was serving 18 years and had his sentence commuted.
Yet, many in the Trump world are already downplaying the pardons, just as they downplayed the actual violence of Jan. 6 when doors were busted, windows were smashed and, worst of all, law enforcement officers were physically attacked.
In one of her first appearances as White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt was asked on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday about the “controversy.”
Her response? “I don't think it's causing much controversy.”
Really?
Well, that’s partly true if your head is buried in conservative media. As CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, “Pro-Trump media consumers are not hearing much at all about the January 6 pardons that have outraged and horrified so many people. The only MAGA-approved storyline is that Trump is keeping his promises to the families of ‘hostages,’ which ignores that the rioters were charged and convicted. But it's barely breaking through as a story at all.”
When it is breaking through, it’s not viewed as a negative. Appearing on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Monday night, Fox News host Laura Ingraham called the pardons one of the day’s “highlights.”
She added, “1,600 pardons for J6ers who were arrested. And a lot of them were sentenced to two, three, four, five years in jail. His point is, documents were destroyed, which they were, and these people never had the real chance to put on a proper defense. That was really big.”
This is a different tune than the one Ingraham sang right after Jan. 6. In fact, the day after the attacks, Ingraham said on air, “Many who stormed the Capitol will likely face jail time. Good. Anyone who broke the law should.”
At the time, other Fox News stars — such as Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters — also criticized those who broke into the Capitol and acted violently. Those opinions, too, have long been forgotten and changed.
Meanwhile, it was only last week that Vice President JD Vance went on “Fox News Sunday” and said, “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
Again, that was last week.
Perhaps sensing that wasn’t going to play well with Trump and the MAGA crowd, Vance later went on X and wrote, “First of all, I donated to the J6 political prisoner fund and got ROASTED for it during my senate race. I've been defending these guys for years. Second, there were federal informants in the crowd. Do they get a pardon? I don't think so. The president saying he'll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walkback. I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial.”
But it was May 2024 when Vance told CNN, “If you beat up a cop, of course you deserve to go to prison. If you violated the law, you should suffer the consequences.”
Of course, he said.
Meanwhile, new Secretary of State Marco Rubio twisted himself into a pretzel Tuesday to avoid condemning the insurrectionists or Trump’s decision to pardon them. The “Today” show played a 2021 clip of Rubio condemning the attacks before co-host Craig Melvin asked Rubio what kind of message pardoning those involved sends to the rest of the world.
Rubio used a technicality to get out of answering. He said, as secretary of state, he was not going to “engage in domestic political debates.” He added, “I hope you guys all understand that my days — at least in the time at the Department of State — of engaging in domestic politics will be put aside as I focus on the affairs the United States has around the world and the engagements we have to have to make our country a safer, stronger, more prosperous place.”
Pressed even further when asked if those pardoned might feel emboldened to resort to violence again, Rubio said, “I think it's unfortunate, you know, our first engagement as I agree to come on this morning with you. I'm going to be working on foreign policy issues, and you want to revisit these issues that are going on in domestic politics. I'm just — it's not going to happen. If you have questions for me about foreign policy and engaging in the world, I'd be happy to talk to you about those.”
It was disappointing, although not at all surprising that Rubio slithered his way out of answering. But good on Melvin for pushing the topic.
ABC “Good Morning America” co-host George Stephanopoulos also asked Rubio about it, and Rubio said, “I don’t anticipate a single one of our partners will ask about it, obviously. My job is to focus on the foreign policy of the United States. I have a different job this morning and a different focus. … I won’t be opining on domestic matters at this point.”
