President-elect Donald Trump said he would use his powers on his “first day” in the White House to grant pardons to rioters involved in the attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I’m going to be acting very quickly,” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press recorded on Friday, his first network TV interview since his election victory. “I’m going to look at everything. We’re going to look at individual cases.”
Trump’s comments follow President Joe Biden’s decision to offer a pardon to his son Hunter Biden, a move that reversed his stance that he would not use his executive powers to aid his oldest-living child.
That move drew criticism from both sides of the political aisle as Biden justified the decision by claiming the case against his son — who was found guilty of gun charges and also pleaded guilty in a separate felony tax case — was politically tinged and aimed at damaging him and Hunter.
Critics, including some Biden allies, expressed concerns that the president’s decision would also provide political cover for Trump, who has accused the Department of Justice without evidence of politically targeting him and whose incoming administration is poised to overhaul the DOJ, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and intelligence agencies.
The president-elect, who has offered clemency to people close to him in his first term, has vowed to pardon those convicted of involvement in the Jan. 6 attack.
Trump indicated that Biden’s reversal on pardoning his son gives him room to alter his stances. Asked if he was committed to his statements to not restrict access to abortion pills, Trump said he’s standing by his statement, but acknowledged that political realities can shift.
“Things change. I think they change. I hate to go on shows like Joe Biden, ‘I’m not going to give my son a pardon. I will not under any circumstances give him a pardon.’ I watched this and I always knew he was going to give him a pardon,” Trump said on NBC. “So things do change. But I don’t think it’s going to change at all.”
He also raised the issue in a post on Dec. 1, responding to Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!,” Trump wrote. The president-elect has regularly referred to those convicted over the attack as “hostages.”
Republicans have investigated Hunter Biden over his business dealings, accusing him of using his connections to benefit his father. There has been no solid evidence that the president has benefitted from his son’s misdeeds.
Trump brushed off prior comments where he said he would appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden, telling NBC “I’m not looking to go back into the past. I’m looking to make our country successful. Retribution will be through success.”