Vice President-elect JD Vance shared on Sunday that he doesn’t support a blanket pardon for all Jan. 6 protestors, saying that those who were violent deserve their sentences.
Vance shared his thoughts while appearing on Fox’s “Fox News Sunday,” noting that some deserve the punishment they received over their actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
“If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6 and you’ve had [Attorney General] Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance said.
He went on to say, “If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
President-elect Donald Trump has also been asked recently about his plans for pardoning those who were at the Capitol when the riots broke out, and a mob of Trump supporters attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
While speaking with “Meet the Press” in December, Trump said that on his first day, he would pardon his supporters who rioted on Jan. 6, claiming they were victims of a “very nasty system.”
“I’m going to be acting very quickly, first day,” Trump said, adding that the rioters who have been convicted have “been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
Vance’s comments are not the same as his boss’s, as Trump did not rule out pardoning those who entered guilty pleas for violent crimes like assaulting police officers.
“Because they had no choice,” Trump said about the guilty pleas. “I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system. They say to a guy, ‘You’re going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.’ And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they’ve been destroyed.”
Vance said on Sunday that “there’s a little bit of gray area there” when asked about those who were violent at the Capitol. He said that he and the president-elect are “very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law.”
Vance also clarified his remarks in a post to X after the interview, saying the Trump administration would evaluate each Jan. 6 case individually. He said they would look at pardoning violent offenders who were “provoked” as well.
“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,” Vance wrote.
As things sit, more than 1,270 defendants have been convicted in connection to their actions at the Capitol, more than 1,580 have been arrested, and more than 700 have already completed their sentences or received no jail or prison time as punishment.