Why does Donald Trump want to pardon the rioters of January 6 attack? , donald trump news

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, his proposals on issues such as immigration, taxes and trade have sparked fierce debate.

But two weeks away from returning to one of the world’s most powerful political offices, Trump is fueled by past grievances, lashing out at political rivals, critics and a 2020 election defeat he has never acknowledged.

Much of his rhetoric has focused on the events of January 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the election results. Monday is the fourth anniversary of that riot.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters on December 22, Trump took time in his remarks against the January 6 committee, a congressional panel that investigated Trump’s efforts before, during and after the riot.

“The unselected committee of political thugs, the J6 committee, what they did is very illegal,” he told the audience.

But Trump’s focus on January 6 is not limited to his critics. He has also pledged to grant a full pardon to rioters who participated in the violent attack on the Capitol, an event that many of his critics describe as insurrection.

What was January 6, how many people have been charged in connection with the riot, and how can Trump use his presidential powers to release guilty people from jail? We tackle these and other questions in this short explainer.

What was 6th January?

Following his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Trump forcefully promoted the false claim that the election was “rigged” and stolen from him through massive fraud.

That effort went beyond rhetoric, and included a plan to replace the officials who cast ballots in the Electoral College based on the popular vote in their respective states with a separate batch of pro-Trump voters.

On January 6, 2021, Trump held a rally in the capital, Washington, DC, where he railed against the election results and urged his supporters to “fight like hell”.

“When you catch someone cheating, you’re allowed to play by very different rules,” he said.

Trump ended his speech by urging his followers to march to the Capitol building to “peacefully and patriotically raise their voices” as Congress was meeting to certify the election results.

Over the next several hours, a crowd of Trump supporters, some of whom were armed, attacked police trying to contain the crowd and stormed the building in an effort to prevent Trump’s loss from being certified.

One of the rioters, Ashli ​​Babbitt, was shot and killed by a police officer as she tried to breach the House chamber.

How many people have been charged in connection with the riots?

According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), more than 1,488 people faced criminal charges in connection with the attack on the Capitol as of August 6, 2024, according to the latest available data.

Those figures included people from all 50 states and the capital of Washington, DC. About 547 defendants were charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing officers or staff, including 163 who were charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

What has Trump said about the participants?

Trump has portrayed those charged and imprisoned for their actions on January 6 as victims of political persecution, calling them “patriots” and “political prisoners” and calling for their release from prison upon returning to the White House. The President has promised to use pardon powers. ,

In a social media post in March, Trump said that his first act as president would be to “free the wrongfully imprisoned hostages on January 6th!”

What has Trump said about politicians criticizing his role on January 6?

Trump has taken a less lenient stance toward political rivals, who oversaw efforts to draw attention to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and criticized his actions on Jan. 6.

In July, Trump shared a post on his social media website Truth Social saying that former Republican Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, was critical of the January 6 investigation and Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Must face. Tribunal for acts of “treason”.

In another post, Trump shared an image of 15 lawmakers, including members of the January 6 investigation, and said they “should go to jail” instead of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who will serve a four-month prison sentence in 2024. Was. Disregarding a subpoena in a congressional investigation on January 6.

What do Americans think about the events of January 6?

A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll in December 2023 found that about 55 percent of American adults believed that January 6 was an attack on American democracy that “should not be forgotten”.

But according to polls, Republican voters are much less likely to agree with that sentiment, and more than two-thirds believe Biden’s election in 2020 was illegitimate. Republicans are more likely to say that Trump was not responsible for the violence that occurred on January 6, with only 14 percent holding him responsible, compared to 53 percent of American adults.

Why is this important?

While most people in the US view Trump’s role unfavorably on January 6 and the events of that day, those negative sentiments did not prevent him from defeating Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

Now, as Trump prepares to return to the White House, some see Trump’s continued insistence that he is the true winner of the 2020 election and his willingness to prosecute his political rivals as evidence that That he will pursue a more vindictive and undemocratic agenda during this time. His first term in office.