GOP Senator Calls Out Trump For Labelling Jan. 6 Rioters 'Hostages'

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Sunday said she disagreed with former President Donald Trump’s comments calling people who have been convicted of offenses related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot as “hostages,” but said it would be within his prerogative to pardon them if he wins another term in the White House this November.

During a rally in Iowa earlier this month, one day ahead of the third anniversary of Jan. 6, the former president lamented the legal consequences facing the rioters.

“You have the hostages, the J6 hostages I call them,” he said. “Nobody’s been treated ever in history so badly as those people.”

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Ernst, who earlier this month led a congressional delegation to the Middle East in coordination with the families of those taken captive during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel to push for their release, said Trump’s words on the subject bother her.

“There is no comparison,” Ernst said.

Ernst cited the six Americans who remain in Hamas’ custody 100 days after the militant group attacked Southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, 100 of which have yet to be released. The Oct. 7 attack also sparked the current brutal conflict in Gaza, which has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, according to local officials.

“Our Americans that are being held overseas, they are innocent,” she said. “They were celebrating the high Jewish holiday, and were taken by these horrible terrorists. So there is no equal term. The hostages are hostages.”

“There is a very clear difference,” she continued.

Yet Ernst said it would be within Trump’s right to choose to pardon those convicted of crimes related to their participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“I am not opposed