President Donald Trump has called the riot that interrupted congressional ratification of Joe Biden's election four years ago "a heinous attack on the United States Capitol." And even when he began talking about pardoning some of the people who invaded the Capitol that day, he signaled that he would use his clemency power with care. "I am inclined to pardon many of them," he told CNN in 2023. "I can't say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control." Just last week, J.D. Vance, now the vice president, elaborated on that point. "If you committed violence on that day," Vance said on Fox News, "obviously you shouldn't be pardoned."
Trump drew no such distinction on Monday, when he granted "a full, complete and unconditional pardon" to nearly 1,600 people who had been charged in connection with the Capitol riot. Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 people who were still serving time for riot-related crimes and instructed the Justice Department to drop pending cases. Those decisions, he claimed, were necessary to correct "a grave national injustice" and begin "a process of national reconciliation."
Such a reconciliation is impossible when the president is willing to excuse political violence as long as it is perpetrated by his supporters. Despite Trump's insistence that he expected people inspired by his stolen-election fantasy to do nothing but march to the Capitol "peacefully and patriotically," he has proven unwilling to draw that line in practice.
