Fox Host Laura Ingraham Praises Trump For Pardoning Jan. 6 Rioters — Who She Once Condemned as ‘Criminals’
Fox News host Laura Ingraham gushed over a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office Monday night — citing his pardon of the Jan. 6 defendants who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021, beating police and hunting lawmakers, as a “highlight.”
Trump on Monday granted clemency to some 1,500 defendants who were convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, during which a mob of his supporters, fueled by his false claims the 2020 election was stolen from him, sought to violently disrupt the transfer of power.
More than 140 police officers were wounded in the brutal attack. One, Brian Sicknick, died the day after, and four more officers committed suicide in the year that followed.
In a Monday night appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime, Ingraham was asked to give her “highlights” of Trump’s day one executive orders. Ingraham cited several, including the sweeping pardons of January 6 rioters.
“1,600 pardons for J6ers who were arrested,” Ingraham said. “And a lot of them were sentenced to two, three, four, five years in jail. His point is, documents were destroyed, which they were, and these people were never had the real chance to put on a proper defense. That was really big.”
“These were the greatest hits of Donald Trump, and he enjoyed every minute of it!” Ingraham exclaimed.
While the Jan. 6 rioters have been recast as victims over the last few years, at the time of the attack even staunch supporters of Trump condemned them.
Fox News hosts, including Ingraham, watched with horror and decried the rioters on air. “Those who breached the Capitol Hill security today, whoever they were, they were criminals,” Ingraham said on her show.
The night after the riot, Ingraham said: “Many who stormed the Capitol will likely face jail time. Good. Anyone who broke the law should.”
As we know from the evidence made public as part of Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News over its promotion of the 2020 stolen election conspiracy theory, Ingraham and other Fox stars even begged behind the scenes for Trump to stop the attack.
“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” Ingraham texted Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows. “This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”
In another exchange made public by that lawsuit, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch asked CEO Suzanne Scott if Ingraham had gone “too far” in pushing the stolen election lies that led to Jan. 6.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
