Trump's praise of Jan. 6 convicts gives 'a dangerous clue' about his plans: conservative

Will Donald Trump pardon the January 6 defendants who sprayed police with mace, or the ones who broke windows at the Capitol and threatened to kill Mike Pence? That's the question on the mind of conservative Charlie Sykes.

Sykes, the right-wing commentator who earlier this month traded pointed barbs with Donald Trump co-defendant Jeff Clark, called out Trump's habit of calling the Jan. 6 convicts "hostages" in a piece published by MSNBC.

"Trump’s reference to Jan. 6 insurrectionists being held in prison, most for violent crimes, as 'hostages' provides a dangerous clue to his White House plan," he wrote Sunday.

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Sykes goes on to question, with specificity, what Trump plans to do about those who violently attempted to overturn an election Trump lost.

"On Jan. 6, 2021, Julian Khater used a can of bear spray to attack Capitol Police officers who were trying to hold the line against attackers. One of the officers Khater sprayed was Brian Sicknick, who died the next day after suffering a stroke. Last year, Khater pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, and earlier this year he was sentenced to more than six years in prison," Sykes wrote. "Presumably, he is one of the 'Jan. 6 hostages' that Donald Trump says he will set free on his first day back in office, should he be elected in November, per a social media post that reads, 'My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!'"

Sykes goes on to list several other convicts and their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, ultimately declaring it "mind-boggling" that "Trump, the self-professed 'law and order candidate,'isplanning to wipe out the 6 1/2-year sentence of Ralph Joseph Celentano III, who grabbed an officer at the Capitol and threw him over a ledge, an act the judge described as a 'truly cowardly and despicable thing to do.'"

"Yet if we are to take him at his word, these are the people Trump is promising to return to civilian society," the commentator said.

Read the full piece here.