Photo: Alamy
Vice President-elect JD Vance sat for his first post-election interview with “Fox News Sunday,” just eight days ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
During the interview, Vance discussed the Trump administration’s plans for the January 6th defendants, which caused a stir on social media.
Vance told the outlet that defendants who “committed violence” on January 6, 2021, “obviously” should not be pardoned.
“I think it’s very simple, look, if you protested peacefully on Jan. 6, and you had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance remarked.
“If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned,” he continued. “And there’s a little bit of a gray area there.”
Vance said he and President Trump are “very much committed” to administering the law equally. He added they both believe that some rallygoers were “prosecuted unfairly.”
“We need to rectify that,” Vance told the outlet.
Vance faced pushback on social media from a pair of conservative influencers who argued that some rallygoers only reacted violently after the Capitol Police fired crowd control munitions at peaceful protestors.
Vance shared the post and replied, “First of all, I donated to the to the J6 political prisoner fund and got ROASTED for it during my senate race. I’ve been defending these guys for years. Second, there were federal informants in the crowd. Do they get a pardon? I don’t think so. 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.”
Trump has promised to look at each individual case to determine who should receive clemency.
Footage from the event shows rallygoers being waved in the Capitol building after removing barriers. Additionally, at least 26 FBI confidential informants were present that day. A report from a Department of Justice (DOJ) watchdog revealed that most of the informants participated in illegal activities that day.
Four informants entered the Capitol and 13 went into the restricted area, according to the report. Notably, the report found that 23 of the 26 informants were not instructed to attend the events that day.