DeSantis: Trump Could Have Pardoned Nonviolent January 6 Protesters and Chose Not To

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that former President Donald Trump could have pardoned nonviolent January 6 protestors while he was still president but chose not to.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski asked, “Just over the weekend he was talking about the January 6 insurrectionists, those who were tried and convicted as hostages and he was talking about dictators around the world and how much he loves them and he’s such good friends with them. You don’t have any concern about the comments that he is making?”

DeSantis said, “Well, it’s interesting on the January 6 protests, I mean, he called that rally knowing that that was going to be in D.C. where things could get potentially out of hand. And he’s now saying he would do clemency for the, I guess, the nonviolent. But he could have done that. When he was president. He could have said, look, this was, he could have taken responsibility. He could have said that the people that, not the violent people, obviously, that’s a different, it’s a bird of a different feather but on the people that were there just as protesters and kind of got caught up he could have granted clemency to them and he chose not to because I think he was told that if he did that he could potentially risk being convicted at a Senate impeachment trial. He could have done that before he left office.”

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