"Hillbilly Elegy" author JD Vance was once a scathing critic of Donald Trump, but by time he ran for the U.S. Senate via Ohio in 2022, he had given himself an ultra-MAGA makeover and become a forceful Trump defender. That defense played a role in Trump's decision to make Vance his running mate in 2024.
But now, the vice-president-elect is drawing angry criticism from some MAGA Republicans for saying he favors pardons for some but not all of the January 6, 2021 rioters.
President-elect Trump, since winning the 2024 election, has doubled down on his promise to pardon rioters who have faced federal charges for their attack on the U.S. Capitol Building that day. And he hasn't ruled out the possibility of pardoning January 6 rioters who violently attacked police.
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Vance, during an appearance on Fox News, drew a distinction between violent and nonviolent defendants.
Vance told Fox News' Shannon Bream, "If you protested peacefully on January 6.… you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there's a little bit of a grey area there."
The London Times' Hugh Tomlinson notes that Vance's comments have angered some Trump supporters, and Vance has responded that he has long been a supporter of the January 6 defendants.
"Social media posts have circulated comparing Vance to Mike Pence, Trump's vice-president during his first term in office," Tomlinson explains. "Pence is loathed by hardline MAGA supporters for refusing to block certification of the 2020 election result on the day of the riot. Some who marched on the Capitol chanted 'Hang Mike Pence.'"
On X, formerly Twitter, Vance posted, "The president saying he'll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walk-back. I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial."