Vance backs Trump pardons of J6 violent offenders

Donald Trump has made some very controversial moves during his first days in office, but none more controversial in my eyes than the pardons of J6 defendants who assaulted police officers.

JD Vance, who has previously stated all violent offenders should remain in jail, has pivoted since the pardons, but his reason why may just save Trump.

Trump justifies pardons

Much of what Donald Trump said to justify the pardons of the J6 violent offenders is just flat-out wrong.

For instance, Donald Trump has said the violent offenders were “very minor incidents,” which is just not true. I have seen the videos and still photos of many of the attacks against officers, and most of them were brutal, and these fights lasted for hours, not minutes.

Trump also claimed that “outside agitators” were responsible for most of the violent crimes, but again, that is not true. While the FBI did have informants there, they were limited (although there were numerous informants present who were not authorized to be there). This is arguably the one area with the most misinformation reported since the riot occurred.

Finally, Trump has claimed that murderers in blue states “don’t even get any time.” Again, not true. States like PA and California have mandatory minimum sentences for murder that are upward of 15 years. Trump has never given specific examples to back up his claims on this front.

Vance Says Violent Offenders Should Remain in Jail

Just days before Trump issued the pardons, Vance was interviewed about them.

Vance stated, “If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6 and you’ve had [Attorney General] Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned.

He added, “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

Trump, however, appeared to be leaning to pardoning everyone at the time, having stated, “I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system. They say to a guy, ‘You’re going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.’ And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they’ve been destroyed.”

Vance Backs Trump Play

Vance is an amazing speaker, so after Trump had given the blanket pardons, Vance was more or less forced to back Trump’s play, but he found a great way to do it that enabled him to save face in the process.

Vance stated, “What the president said consistently on the campaign … is that he was going to look at a case by case basis … and that’s exactly what we did. We looked at 1,600 cases. And the thing that came out of it, Margaret, is that there was a massive denial of due process of liberty, and a lot of people were denied their constitutional rights. I think he made the right decision.”

That is complete nonsense because, had that been the case, Vance would never have given the answer he had only a few days prior. Plus, when Trump was interviewed about the violent offenders, he seemed as though he was talking off the cuff, not even familiar with all the cases.

As I have said before, I don’t care about the non-violent offenders, but there were probably five or six dozen people who I believe should have remained in jail. I firmly believe this sent the wrong message, and I think it will come back to bite the GOP in the future. Having said that, for people just looking for a soundbite to justify the pardons, I think Vance did an exceptional job of giving a legitimate legal reason for Trump behind the pardons. To that point, if I were advising Trump, I would advise him to keep quiet on the pardons and allow Vance to do the talking for him. Vance literally may have just saved the day for Trump on this front.