In what will certainly stir controversy on the right, JD Vance made an important clarification about how the incoming Donald Trump administration will handle January 6th participants: Violent offenders will not be pardoned.
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Speaking to Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” Vance was asked who exactly would be eligible for a pardon. The soon-to-be-vice president didn’t shy away from the question.
ALSO SEE: No One Cares About January 6th, and Democrats Just Can’t Handle It
JD Vance makes it official.
Those who committed violent acts on January 6th will not be pardoned.
pic.twitter.com/EogcXWILZN— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 12, 2025
BREAM: January 6th pardons. President Trump says that there’s a process. Where is the line drawn on who will and wouldn’t be considered for a pardon?
VANCE: I think it’s very simple. Look, if you protested peacefully on January the 6th and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s DOJ treat you like a gang member, 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 gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law, and there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that.
Many of the larger Trump-supporting accounts on social media are already lashing out at Vance, but it needs to be noted that neither Donald Trump nor JD Vance ever promised a blanket pardon for all those charged over January 6th. Whether that’s the right or wrong position will be up to you to decide for yourself, but it doesn’t make sense to get angry at someone for not doing something they never promised to do in the first place.
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Trump has been very concerned about the allocation of political capital since being elected. That was shown in the recent budget fight where the incoming president was deadset on avoiding a government shutdown even if that meant passing another bloated continuing resolution. He wants a clean deck when he takes office to try to pass his agenda through reconciliation in March, and if he walks in on day one and pardons people who injured police officers, it could undercut everything he’s trying to do.
Again, I know many people on the right do not agree with that calculation and want a blanket pardon. I’m simply explaining the political realities at play and why Trump never committed to pardoning every single person involved. I’d also note that while many people are expressing anger at Vance over his comments, he never would have said them if that wasn’t the official position of the incoming administration.
Now, does that mean Trump can’t change his mind? Of course, not. He may see the reactions and decide to go ahead with a blanket pardon. For now, though, it seems like everything will hinge on the definition of “violent.” Will it only include those who got physical with officers? Will property damage, such as breaking windows and climbing through them, be considered violence? How will they decide who was provoked and who wasn’t to fill in the “gray area” that Vance mentioned?
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If pardons are given out selectively, things are going to get complicated. How this all plays out will be very interesting, as will the responses as they continue to roll in.
