Pence says he has ‘no interest’ in pardoning Jan. 6 rioters

Pence says he has ‘no interest’ in pardoning Jan. 6 rioters

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that he has “no interest” in pardoning those who have been convicted for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“On the day of Jan. 6, I issued a tweet demanding that people leave the Capitol and end the violence,” Pence said at a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa. “I said that those that failed to do that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and I continue to believe that today.”

“We cannot ever allow what happened on Jan. 6 to happen again in the heart of our democracy,” he continued. “I’ll stand by the decisions and the due process of court in our laws. I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our Capitol. They need to be answerable to the law.”

The former vice president’s comments stand in stark contrast to those of his former boss. Former President Trump vowed at his own CNN town hall last month that he was “inclined to pardon many” of the Jan. 6 rioters.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who launched his long-awaited bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in late May, similarly suggested that he would consider pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, including Trump himself, if elected.

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More than 1,000 people have been arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6 attack, of which over 500 have pleaded guilty and over 400 have been sentenced, according to NPR.

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