President Donald Trump outraged critics on Monday night as he signed pardons on live TV for roughly 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
"These are the hostages -- approximately 1,500 people -- for a pardon, full pardon," Trump told reporters during a signing ceremony at the White House.
"We hope they come out tonight frankly," he said. "They're expecting it."
Trump's fulfillment of a longtime campaign promise incensed critics, who unloaded on the nation's 45th and now 47th president.
"Hundreds of people convicted of assaulting police officers amid the storming [of] the U.S. Capitol are getting full pardons because Trump wanted them to succeed and appreciated the effort. Shame of a nation," wrote Matthew Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, on X.
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Gertz added in a separate post that Vice President J.D. Vance is "apparently wholly out of the loop but should have to explain why the President did something he made very clear would 'obviously' be a mistake," referring to Vance's comment on Fox News that violent Jan. 6 offenders "shouldn't be pardoned."
Among the rioters being let go: Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio — a fact not lost on former federal prosecutor Harry Litman.
"Tarrio's indictment for seditious conspiracy, about as serious a charge of betrayal of country as there is. Can start with para 13-14 to get a sense of whom Trump has chosen to coddle. Might just as well pardon Timothy McVeigh, except he was a lone actor," chided Litman.
"Here is the pardon order. Disgusting slap in the faces of the police officers who defended the Capitol," railed Barb McQuade, another former federal prosecutor.
"Trump’s pardon of Jan 6 attackers corrupts the rule of law and rewrites history. These were not 'hostages.' These were people who used brute force to commit vigilante violence," McQuade wrote in a separate post.
"Hundreds of people pardoned for assaulting law enforcement officers. Hundreds," a stunned Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on x.
"Congratulations, John Roberts, you must be proud tonight," wrote legal expert Chris Geidner on Bluesky.