CNN’s Jake Tapper Hammers Trump For Freeing Jan 6 ‘Criminals’ — With Stunning Video And Trump’s Own Words

CNN anchor Jake Tapper hammered President Donald Trump over his pardon of January 6 convicts who assaulted police in a blistering video essay that included Trump’s own words of condemnation.

Trump’s pardons and commutations for the January 6 defendants on his first day in office, including those who committed violence against police, drew widespread and bipartisan condemnation — and awkward, at times, cringe-worthy deflection from many GOP officials.

On Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, a visibly disgusted Tapper took Trump apart over the pardons of people that Trump once denounced the day after he egged them on — and gave viewers a glimpse of what those “criminals” did that day:

TAPPER: President Trump is currently meeting with congressional Republican leaders at the White House right now after attending services earlier today at the National Cathedral and giving the sermon a bad review because the bishop asked for mercy for undocumented immigrants and LGBT children.

On that subject of mercy, we should start our coverage today on the pardons and commutations that President Trump issued for those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. So yesterday, just as Capitol police officers were wrapping up their long, arduous day, securing inauguration services, President Trump forgave the very people who violently attacked law enforcement four years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So this is January 6th, and these are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 for a pardon. Full pardon. We have about six commutations in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President Trump teased that moment, announcing it on a stage at his rally yesterday afternoon where he was surrounded by families who had been affected by the brutal terrorist attack in Israel on October 7th, 2023, families of actual hostages standing with a young woman who had been held hostage herself, Noah Argamani, standing there just over his right shoulder tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, tonight, I’m going to be signing on the J6 hostages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: There is no such thing as J6 hostages. Actual hostages, people kidnapped from their beds, from their communities, ripped from their families arms on October 7th by Hamas were standing on that stage, or their loved ones were. The criminals the president Trump pardoned were not hostages. They were part of the biggest criminal probe in U.S. history, all of it dismantled with the swipe of President Trump’s signature black marker.

Let’s rewind and listen to President Trump the day after the insurrection of 2021 in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction. You do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Hmm. President Trump now apparently feels quite differently about these 1,500 criminals.

The Trump transition had promised as recently as yesterday morning, a careful case by case analysis before the president issued any pardons. That, of course, did not happen. And here are some of the people Donald Trump just released onto the streets.

We’ll start with Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs, seen here marching in formation in military gear, infiltrating the Capitol –freed. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, whom prosecutors say stockpiled weapons prior to the Capitol attack, freed. Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, his sentence was commuted. Seen here smashing a window with the police riot shield.

So were former Proud Boys leaders Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean. Biggs, now out of prison, is speaking. In the next video, you’re going to see Nordean to the left in the sunglasses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIGGS, PROUD BOYS LEADER: So we just stormed the fucking Capitol, took the motherfucking place back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Those were the commutations.

Here are some of the people who were pardoned. Julian Khater shown here spraying officers in the face, law enforcement officers. Its either chemical spray or bear spray, according to prosecutors. Those he sprayed included, by the way, the late U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

Khater later pled guilty to assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, sentenced to six years in jail, no longer.

Matthew Krol, the person in the red hoodie charging towards law enforcement officers stealing one of their batons, described as one of the most active instigators of violence that day, according to the Justice Department — also pardoned.

Robert Palmer, a Florida man who attacked police with a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank and a pole, also pardoned.

Two rioters were released from jail last night, brothers Andrew Valentin and Matthew Valentin convicted of felony assault, sentenced to prison just last week, pardoned. Andrew seen here also grabbing a police officer’s baton. Both brothers got out of there two and a half year prison sentence.

Remember, President Trump called January 6th, quote, a day of love. But many in his own party still did not see it that way.

Here’s his own vice president, J.D. Vance, about a week ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there’s a little bit of a gray area there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. Obviously. Not obvious to everyone I guess.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.