What are Donald Trump’s biggest priorities for his early days in office, should the nightmare in which he wins a second term actually come to pass? Well, aside from being a dictator and presumably getting his Diet Coke button reinstalled, he also wants to free the people who spent January 6, 2021 attacking the US Capitol on his behalf.
Yes, in a Monday post on Truth Social, the ex-president declared, “My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!” This was not the first time Trump has suggested he plans to go to bat for the people who attempted to help him steal a second term three years ago. In 2022, he said he was considering “full pardons with an apology to many,” adding, “I met with and I’m financially supporting people that are incredible…. It’s very much on my mind. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them.” He also called the judges and prosecutors involved in the January 6 cases “sick” and “cold,” adding, “They’re the most coldhearted people. They don’t care about families, they don’t care about anything.” To date, he does not appear to have expressed sympathy for the families whose loved ones were injured or died during or following the attack.
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Trump’s galling use of the word hostages to describe people who were convicted for crimes related to the attack on the Capitol was slammed in January by a Reagan-appointed judge. Referring to comments by the ex-president and other Republicans, US District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote, “The Court is accustomed to defendants who refuse to accept that they did anything wrong. But in my thirty-seven years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream. I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness.” Lamberth added that it was “preposterous” that some people have claimed the “rioters behaved ‘in an orderly fashion’ like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages.’”
According to the Department of Justice, almost 1,300 people have been arrested and charged for their alleged involvement in the riot; the AP reports that about 750 people have been sentenced, with nearly two thirds of those people receiving prison time.
Speaking of consequences and January 6, it is viewed as a near certainty that should he win reelection, Trump will ensure he will never be brought to justice for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
