Defending America’s police force is apparently no longer a priority for Republican leadership.
Five years after the party took a hard pro-police stance in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, Vice President JD Vance believes it’s okay to support individuals who beat and kill cops, so long as they do so in support of Donald Trump.
While listening to a list of January 6 offenders who had harmed police officers while invading the U.S. Capitol, Vance said he continued to “stand by” the decision to grant the violent attackers full, complete, and unconditional pardons.
“If you stand with law enforcement, how can you call these people unjustly imprisoned?” asked CBS’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday.
“Margaret, you’re separating—there’s an important issue here,” Vance said. “There’s what the people actually did on January the 6th, and we’re not saying everybody did everything perfectly, and then what did Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice do in unjustly prosecuting well over 1,000 Americans in a way that was politically motivated?”
“Is violence like that against a police officer ever justified?” pressed Brennan.
“Violence against a police officer is not justified but that does not mean that you should have Merrick Garland’s weaponized Department of Justice expose you to incredibly unfair process, to denial of constitutional rights, and frankly, to a double standard that was not applied to many people,” Vance responded.
“The pardon power is not just for people who are angels or people who are perfect. And of course, we love our law enforcement and want people to be peaceful, with everybody, but especially with our good cops. That’s a separate issue from what Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice did. We rectified a wrong, and I stand by it.”
JD Vance: “Violence against a police officer is not justified, but … ” pic.twitter.com/mFYUITnHju
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 26, 2025
Last week, the country’s most powerful police union torched Donald Trump for pardoning more than 1,500 people in connection with the January 6 riot, including individuals who attacked Capitol Police as they broke into the Capitol building.
“The [International Association of Chiefs of Police] and FOP are deeply discouraged by the recent pardons and commutations granted by both the Biden and Trump Administrations to individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers,” the Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement. “The IACP and FOP firmly believe that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences. Crimes against law enforcement are not just attacks on individuals or public safety—they are attacks on society and undermine the rule of law. Allowing those convicted of these crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families.”
The both-sides statement was a humbling turnaround for the fraternal order, which endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Moments after the pardons were announced, the order initially reacted with “no statement” statement.
Even some of the people who raided the U.S. Capitol and received pardons do not believe they deserve the nation’s forgiveness. Former MAGA granny Pamela Hemphill, 71, rejected Trump’s offer of clemency last week after serving 60 days in jail on a misdemeanor charge for her role in the insurrection. In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Hemphill claimed that accepting the pardon “would be a slap in the face to the Capitol police officers, to the rule of law, to our whole nation.”
“You know, I broke the law that day—period, black and white. I’m not a victim. I’m a volunteer,” Hemphill said. “And I don’t want to be a part of them trying to rewrite history what really happened that day. So if I took a pardon, I’m saying, yeah, it’s OK what I did that day. No, it was not OK.”
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