Trump Stood Up For Jan. 6 Rioters — Once Again

Donald Trump stood up for rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, yet again on Thursday, this time from the national debate stage.

When President Joe Biden made a comment about how Trump wanted to “forgive” and commute the sentences of Jan. 6 convicts, Trump didn’t deny that. Instead, he took the rioters’ side.

“What they’ve done to some people that are so innocent– You ought to be ashamed of yourself, what you have done, how you have destroyed the lives of so many people,” he told Biden, presumably referring to federal prosecutions against Capitol rioters. Then, he launched into a tangent about calling in the National Guard on Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020.

Trump’s comment was significant: It was yet another instance of him standing up for Jan. 6 defendants, who sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power between presidents by sacking Congress. The vast majority of more than 1,400 defendants have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty at trial, an NPR tally shows . Many await trial. Just three have been acquitted of all charges.

Trump has repeatedly said he supports freeing some or all Jan. 6 rioters. In January 2022, he pledged to treat Jan. 6 defendants “fairly,” and that “if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons.” The following month , he said “many” Jan. 6 defendants were “patriots, they’re soldiers, they’re policemen,” and added that he would “absolutely be prepared” to issue pardons to some of them. A few months later, he said he would be “looking at them very, very seriously for pardons,” saying Jan. 6 defendants were “having their lives totally destroyed and being treated worse than terrorists and murderers.”

These are hardlythe only examples. Trump has called for