Trump makes pledge to Capitol rioters
Former US President Donald Trump has said he will pardon supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 last year if he wins the election in 2024.
Addressing the crowd at a ‘Save America’ rally in Conroe, Texas late on Saturday, Trump promised to make sure they were treated fairly by the justice system. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly,” he insisted.
The Department of Justice charged more than 700 people after Trump’s supporters overran Washington’s Capitol Hill a year ago in an attempt to block the certification of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, as president. Some 87 of them have so far been handed a sentence.
Trump, whose alleged role in inciting the siege is also being investigated, lashed out at the House Select Committee, which is probing the January 6 events. He labeled it the “‘unselect’ committee,” describing the prosecutions and the prison sentences meted out to his supporters as a “disgrace.”
“This hasn’t happened to all of the other atrocities that took place recently. Nothing like this has happened,” he added.
Trump also revealed some of the other actions he is planning to take should he stage a successful return to the White House, including banning the dissemination of critical race theory in schools, the military, and the government; firing “woke generals, who only know how to lose”; and forbidding men from participating in women’s sports.
