Trump Gets Awkward Reminder as He Vows to Pardon January 6 Rioters

Donald Trump doubled down on a frightening campaign promise Wednesday.

While at the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference in Chicago, Trump was asked if he would pardon rioters who assaulted police officers during the January 6 insurrection.

“Oh, absolutely I would,” Trump replied while interrupting the moderators. “If they are innocent, I would pardon them.”

“They’ve been convicted,” Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, quickly clarified, to which the crowd interrupted in laughter.

Trump previously has called the violent insurrectionists “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots.” He has promised several times over to “free” the rioters, despite saying on the day after the Capitol attack that “those who broke the law” would “pay.”

But he changed tune just a year later. “We’ll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons,” Trump said in 2022. “I mean full pardons with an apology to many.”

At Wednesday’s event, Trump tried to redirect the conversation to left-wing rioters in Minneapolis and Seattle while justifying the violence of January 6. When pressed by Scott about the acts of individuals pummeling police officers in what was likely the largest single-day assault on law enforcement, Trump justified the insurrectionists’ actions by simply saying the officers “shot a young lady in the face.”