The focus on President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to pardon Jan. 6 protesters is sharpening, with his return to the White House just eight days away.
Vice President-elect JD Vance — who, like Trump, has been critical of a justice system allegedly weaponized against the protesters — laid out how their offenses might be weighed when considering the pardons.
“If you protested peacefully on January 6th, and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance told Fox News’ Shannon Bream during an exclusive one-on-one interview that aired Sunday.
“If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned, and there’s a little bit of a gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. And there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that.”
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JD Vance speaks at a press conference, May 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)
Trump previously pledged to pardon Jan. 6 protesters on day one of his incoming administration, telling NBC’s Kristen Welker last month that people on the Jan. 6 committee in Congress belonged in jail instead.
“I’m going to look at everything. We’ll look at individual cases,” Trump told Welker as he spelled out his plans. “But I’m going to be acting very quickly.”
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The incoming administration faces a slew of challenges ranging from the border crisis to hostages in the Middle East to domestic disaster relief once all members are sworn in.
Relentless wildfires tearing through southern California are but one of the issues Trump’s administration will have to address. With a rift growing between Trump and state Democratic officials, the intended path forward seems unclear.
“President Trump is committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief. That’s true for the hurricane victims and flood victims in North Carolina. It’s true for the fire victims in California. We just have to do a better job. We need competent, good governance,” Vance said.
A scene from the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
“That doesn’t mean you can’t criticize the governor of California for, I think, some very bad decisions over a very long period of time. Some of these reservoirs have been dry for 15, 20 years. The fire hydrants are being reported as going dry while the firefighters are trying to put out these fires. There is a serious lack of competent governance in California, and I think it’s part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad. We need to do a better job at both the state and federal level.”
Newsom’s press office, meanwhile, addressed Trump’s previous remarks that criticized the governor for allegedly mismanaging the water supply, with an X post, stating, “LADWP said that because of the high water demand, pump stations at lower elevations did not have enough pressure refill tanks at higher elevations, and the ongoing fire hampered the ability of crews to access the pumps.”
It added, “Broadly speaking, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot.”
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Fox News’ Hanna Panreck and Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
