Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated on Sunday that the violence that occurred on January 6, 2021, at the United States Capitol “didn’t end that day.”
“It didn’t end that day,” Pelosi explained to CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.” “As you know, [President-elect Trump] called out to these people to continue their violence, my husband being a victim of all of that, and it still — he still has injuries from that attack.”
The fourth anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack is this Monday. Trump has promised to pardon rioters who demonstrated at the Capitol that day as Congress certified President Biden’s 2020 election victory. The president-elect has also suggested that some pardons could be issued within the first few hours of his second term.
“It’s really a strange person who’s going to be president of the United States, who thinks that it’s OK to pardon people who are engaged in an attack,” Pelosi explained during her “Face the Nation” television interview.
Some former Capitol Police officers who were present during the Jan. 6 attack have described Trump’s decision to pardon rioters as “a betrayal.”
“It’s a betrayal, a stab in the heart,” former Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who suffered permanent injuries on the day of the attack, told The Washington Post.
Harry Dunn, Gonell’s fellow former Capitol Police officer, has stated that forgiving insurrectionists for violent actions demonstrates the commander-in-chief’s lack of accountability.
“They broke the law, violated police officers, attacked us, and then went back and said we did it in the name of Donald Trump,” Dunn told the reporter. “And then Donald Trump is going to pardon them and say it’s OK, all is forgiven.”
The Hill has contacted the Trump transition team for comment.
