If elected president again, Donald Trump would “look very, very favorably” at issuing full pardons to his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, he said in a radio interview Thursday.


What You Need To Know

  • If elected president again, Donald Trump would “look very, very favorably” at issuing full pardons to his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, he said in a radio interview Thursday

  • Talking to conservative host Wendy Bell, Trump also said he’s financially supporting some of those involved, although he did not elaborate

  • After two months of Trump falsely claiming fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters forced its way into the Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory

  • Nearly 850 people have been charged related to Jan. 6, with more than 370 having pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials

Talking to conservative host Wendy Bell, Trump also said he’s financially supporting some of those involved, although he did not elaborate.

“I met with and I'm financially supporting people that are incredible,” Trump said. “And they were in my office actually two days ago. It's very much on my mind. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them.”

After two months of Trump falsely claiming fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters forced its way into the Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory.

Five people died at the scene or in the hours after, and more than 140 police officers were injured as rioters fought them with fists, flagpoles, baseball bats, bear spray, stun guns and more. Lawmakers, meanwhile, were rushed to secure locations as rioters breached the building.

Trump, who invited the supporters to Washington that day for a rally and delivered a nearby speech just prior to the riot, was impeached for inciting an insurrection. The Republican-majority Senate, however, acquitted him.

Nearly 850 people have been charged related to Jan. 6, with more than 370 having pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials. Eighty people have been charged with weapons-related offenses.

The sentences have ranged from fines to years in prison. On Thursday, Thomas Webster, a New York City police veteran, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for storming the Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault a police officer. It’s the longest sentence handed down to date related to Jan. 6.

In the interview, Trump repeated a misleading claim that “police were there ushering them in.” While some video clips showed officers standing idle at Capitol entrances as rioters poured into the building, 239 people have been charged with violent entry, and more than 250 people with assaulting or impending law enforcement. 

The former president said “this radical left system, these people are sick.” He said the prosecutors are “cold-hearted people” and “don’t care about families.” Trump also said some of the judges handing down stiff sentences are “so nasty and so angry.”

“I will look very, very favorably about full pardons,” he said. “If I decide to run and if I win, I will be looking very, very strongly about pardons.”

He added that the federal government would also issue apologies “to many.”

Trump’s remarks came hours before Biden delivered a prime-time speech from Philadelphia in which he blasted Trump and extremist Republicans who support him as threats to American democracy.

Trump has not officially announced he’s running for president in 2024, but he has strongly suggested he plans to do so.