Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara is criticizing a couple of President Donald Trump's decisions in his first week, including the giving pardons or commutations to the U.S. Capitol's January 6th rioters.
O'Hara penned an op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune where he called the pardons a 'slap to the face' to those who serve.
On Monday, O'Hara defended that article and a similarly worded tweet during an appearance with WCCO Radio's Chad Hartman despite significant pushback.
"We are in a very, very sad state, when people are following their politics to an extreme as if it's a religion where they can actually just excuse these pardons," says O'Hara. "It's just, it's disgusting and everyone should be speaking out against it."
O'Hara says the violence that day against officers cannot be excused or normalized.
President Donald Trump pardoned around 1,500 Jan. 6 Capitol rioters last Monday in his first day in office, drawing far-right activist's cheers for the move and strengthening their loyalty to him. Some also borrowed from the president’s own rhetoric, calling for retribution.
“We’ll never forget, we’ll never forgive. You can’t get rid of us,” a California chapter of the far-right Proud Boys posted on Telegram.
“You are on notice. This is not going to end well for you,” read an X post from one pardoned rioter addressed to anyone still “attempting to continue to hold my brethren hostage.”
Enrique Tarrio, the former national Proud Boys leader whose 22-year sentence on seditious conspiracy charges was pardoned by Trump, went on the podcast of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after his release.
“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat,” Tarrio said. “We need to find and put them behind bars for what they did.”
The pardons and rhetoric of retribution from some of those released this week is raising deep concern among attorneys, former federal investigators and experts who follow extremism. They worry that the indiscriminate release of everyone charged in the riots could embolden extremists and make political violence more common, including around contentious political issues such as border security and elections.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.