Trump continues to defend Jan 6 pardons, suggests Biden should have pardoned himself
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has continued to defend his controversial pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters during a Fox News interview, claiming that most were “absolutely innocent” despite being convicted.
Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Wednesday night that he made the pardons and commutations for 1,500 people involved in the pro-Trump mob attack on the U.S. Capitol for a “number of reasons.”
“They were treated like the worst criminals in history. And you know what they were there for? They were protesting the vote,” Trump said repeating the false claim the 2020 election was “rigged.”
After Hannity said that no one should be able to invade the Capitol, Trump responded, “Most of the people were absolutely innocent.”
On Thursday afternoon, answering reporter questions in the Oval Office, Trump was asked whether he planned to meet with those he pardoned –including at the White House.
“I don’t know, he responded. “I’m sure that they probably would like to.”
More than 250 people were convicted for their roles in the attack.
U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died after suffering multiple strokes hours after he was pepper sprayed by rioters. The Washington, D.C. medical examiner ruled he died of natural causes, but said his experience on Jan. 6 played a role in his condition.
Four officers who responded to the Capitol attack have since died by suicide, investigators said.
Approximately 140 Capitol Police officers were injured by rioters, making it one of the most violent days for law enforcement in recent U.S. history, according to investigators. Videos of the destruction and attacks, where the rioters used weapons including bats, hockey sticks, bear spray and stun guns were documented through thousands of hours of videos and police body camera footage that has been publicly released.
Trump, however, claimed on “Hannity” that the attacks on the police were “very minor incidents.”
“This was a political hoax. And you know what? Those people, and I’m not saying in every single case, but there was a lot of patriotism with those people,” he said.
He also said it would have been “very, very cumbersome” to separate out those convicted of violent assaults on police.
Trump’s pardons have come under fire from police unions, prosecutors and some Republicans on the Hill, including Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who condemned the attacks on police officers.
Trump also suggested former President Joe Biden should have pardon himself as he did with his family members and lawmakers on the Jan. 6 committee.
“This guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon,” Trump said without giving specifics on what crimes his predecessor could have committed.
The president added that he would let Congress decide if Biden and those leaders should be probed.
(WASHINGTON) — Lawmakers running for reelection loathe tough votes. And for senators up in purple states in two years, those tough votes are coming early.
President-elect Donald Trump is moving at a lightning pace to stock up his administration, mixing in conventional picks like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state with controversial moves like putting up Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for health and human services secretary. For frontline senators who hold the key to the next Senate majority, navigating their confirmations will be a minefield.
Republicans will be defending the seats of North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, while Democrats will be working to protect Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters. Their confirmation votes for Trump’s Cabinet picks offer a chance to prove bipartisan bona fides, but backing a nominee who is too controversial risks opening them up to attack in races that could be decided by razor-thin margins.
“If they’re smart, then it’s a major factor. The midterms are still a ways off. Generally, voters have short attention spans, and so it’s debatable how much of this stuff they’re going to remember. But I think it’s uniquely important for people who may take heat from the right,” said one GOP strategist.
Some of Trump’s nominees are not anticipated to run into significant roadblocks.
Rubio has already received praise from some Democratic senators, and members of the chamber are often given some degree of deference when facing confirmation to Cabinet positions. Waltz and Ratcliffe may face tighter margins than Rubio but are also considered to be among Trump’s more conventional picks.
But Gaetz and Kennedy, along with Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, named to run the Pentagon, will likely enjoy no Democratic support at all. With Republicans winning a maximum of 53 Senate seats this month, that leaves their margin for error small if they hope to be confirmed.
Already, Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski have sounded skeptical notes about some of Trump’s choices, and other Republicans, including Tillis, have remained noncommittal.
The pressure will be on for Republicans, though.
Trump won a comprehensive victory, and before he announced his more controversial cabinet picks, Republicans on Capitol Hill were touting the need for unity as they prepared to take over a unified government in January.
Collins is considered to be in a league of her own, sources said. A senior Republican who’s likely one of the few candidates, if not the only one, who can win her state, she’s expected to have especially wide latitude to oppose a candidate she deems unfit.
And with a base in such lockstep with Trump, any defiance from other GOP lawmakers could trigger outrage from the famously mercurial president-elect — fury that could in turn result in a primary challenge, and not just for swing-staters like Tillis.
At the same time, supporting a controversial nominee who pushes the envelope too far once confirmed risks becoming a general election issue.
“There will be Trump voters who remember how Republican senators handle these nominations. And so, I do think that for senators who are up this cycle, the base is watching how they handle Trump’s nominees,” the Republican strategist said.
“Any of these other safe-state Republicans who are in cycle, it’s within Trump’s power to cause problems for them on the right, if he chooses to,” the person added.
Still, underscoring the catch-22, any votes for nominees deemed too controversial could end up in ads from their ultimate Democratic opponents labeling them a “rubber stamp” for Trump, the source warned.
The pressure is on for House members, too.
House members will not have a vote in the confirmation process, but they will inevitably field a slate of questions about nominees like Gaetz. Those running in purple districts could opt to punt, noting their lack of a vote, or they could knock the more controversial contenders, also risking blowback from Trump.
“I would try and push it to the Senate first and see if you get away with that. And if you don’t get away with that, then I would strongly advise to stand by your principles and not to end up going down a path for someone else that you didn’t choose for yourself,” said William O’Reilly, a GOP strategist in New York, home to many endangered House Republicans. “Loyalty goes so far, the public is looking for legislators that have a little bit of backbone and common sense.”
Democrats are also in a pickle of their own.
Ossoff and Peters are Senate Democrats’ top frontline members up in 2026. Offering support to some of Trump’s picks like Rubio, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., for national security adviser and former Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, for CIA director, could bolster their bipartisan bona fides. But going too far risks turning off Democrats, a major risk when they’ll need every single supporter energized in states Trump won this month.
“Waltz, Ratcliffe and Rubio, if you’re Ossoff and you vote for them, independent voters see you’re a straight shooter, and he can claim he’s bipartisan, because he was,” said one Georgia Democratic strategist. “And then he says, ‘look, I voted for everybody except Gabbard on his national security team.'”
To be certain, there are several other factors at play across the key midterm races. Incumbents’ opponents are far from finalized, the midterms will take place almost two years after confirmation votes start in January, and some nominees might not even make it to a vote.
But already, the knives are out.
“President Trump and JD Vance are going to be running the Senate,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Trump ally, said on Fox Business this week. “If you want to get in the way, fine. But we’re gonna try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz announced Thursday he is withdrawing his name from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.
“I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday,” Gaetz wrote in a post on X. “I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”
“I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history,” Gaetz added. “I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”
Gaetz informed Trump late Thursday morning that he’d be withdrawing, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Trump, who had been personally calling lawmakers to shore up support for Gaetz, issued a statement saying he appreciated Gaetz’s “recent efforts” to seek Senate approval and that withdrawing was his choice.
“He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect,” Trump wrote. “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”
Trump announced last Wednesday he was tapping Gaetz to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Gaetz, a conservative firebrand in Congress, resigned his seat shortly after.
The choice shocked many Republicans on Capitol Hill and raised eyebrows within the Justice Department.
Gaetz has been under scrutiny amid sexual misconduct allegations, including accusations he had sex with a minor, which he’s long denied.
The House Ethics Committee was in the final stages of its probe into Gaetz when he was tapped to be attorney general, ABC News reported. Fiery debate has transpired on Capitol Hill since then on whether the panel should release its report.
Many senators said they believed the information that would be in the report would become public during his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. John Cornyn, who met with Gaetz on Wednesday, said his hearing had the potential to be “Kavanaugh on steroids.”
Sources told ABC News in the last few days it became clear to the Trump team that Gaetz was not going to have enough votes for a Senate confirmation with sources close to the president-elect telling ABC News “no path to 50” senators.
Karoline Leavitt, the spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition, said on Thursday Trump “remains committed to choosing a leader for the Department of Justice who will strongly defend the Constitution and end the weaponization of our justice system.”
“President Trump will announce his new decision when it is made,” Leavitt said.
Trump has announced who he intends to install his top defense attorneys to the high-level roles at the Justice Department. Todd Blanche has been picked to be the deputy attorney general and Emil Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general.
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman said he hopes President-elect Donald Trump is successful in his second term and that he’s not “rooting against him.”
“If you’re rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation,” Fetterman told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “So country first. I know that’s become maybe like a cliche, but it happens to be true.”
Fetterman, who has made headlines as one of the few in his party who have met with several of Trump’s cabinet picks, said his Democratic colleagues need to “chill out” over everything Trump does.
“I’ve been warning people, like, ‘You got to chill out,’ you know? Like the constant, you know, freakout, it’s not helpful,” Fetterman said. “Pack a lunch, pace yourself, because he hasn’t even taken office yet.”
Asked by Karl what the single biggest factor was behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in November, Fetterman pointed to the “undeniable” and “singular political talent” of Trump.
“He had the energy and almost a sense of fearlessness to just say all those kinds of things,” Fetterman said. “You literally were shot in your head and had the presence of mind to respond, you know, ‘Fight, fight, fight!’ I mean, that’s a political talent.”
Fetterman also said that the election was “never about fascism” to him. Harris said in an October town hall that she believed Trump was a fascist after Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly said that his old boss fit the definition of one. Fetterman said that was not a word he would use.
“Fascism, that’s not a word that regular people, you know, use, you know?” Fetterman said. “I think people are going to decide who is the candidate that’s going to protect and project, you know, my version of the American way of life, and that’s what happened.”
Fetterman also pointed to Elon Musk’s endorsement of Trump as another key factor in the election.
“It’s rare to have a surrogate that has a lot of fanboys and is very compelling to a lot of the demographic that we are losing in my party and in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said about the billionaire businessman.
Fetterman said Musk’s endorsement “really mattered” and he believed it did “move the needle.”
Fetterman was the first Democrat in the Senate to meet with Pete Hegseth, the controversial former Fox News anchor who Trump selected for defense secretary. Fetterman has not ruled out supporting him — or any of Trump’s other picks.
“My commitment, and I think I’m doing the job, is I’m going to sit down and have a conversation,” Fetterman said. “To me, it would be distressing if, if he is confirmed, if the Democrats are going to turn our back collectively to the leader of the defense. I mean, that’s astonishing and that’s dangerous.”
Along with Hegseth, Fetterman has met with Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel, Trump’s selection for FBI director.
Patel’s vow to take on Trump’s political enemies has drawn scrutiny. Asked by Karl whether he thinks Patel will use the FBI to do so, Fetterman said while he wasn’t able to go into detail due to the off-the-record nature of the meeting, “That’s never going to happen.”
“So you see yourself inclined to be open to supporting these controversial nominees?” Karl asked.
“Potentially,” Fetterman replied. “But nobody can accuse me of just saying I had a closed mind, or I just said no because Trump picked this person, or whatever.”
Fetterman has said he will vote to confirm Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He said he will also back Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state.
“Rubio, for me, it’s like, he’s in the other party, obviously, but you know, there’s a lot of, the Venn [diagram] is closer, there’s a lot of overlap,” Fetterman said. “If I was, as a Democrat, looking to assemble a bipartisan cabinet, he’d be a solid choice.”
Asked what his message to Trump would be if the president-elect called him, Fetterman said he’d like to talk about opportunities where “we could work together.”
“I’d like to avoid the, you know, the cheap heat and some of the other stuff, but it’s going to be a kooky ride, I’m sure,” he said. “And you know, I try to be a committed, steady voice for Pennsylvania and to remember that we have to find as many wins in the middle of incredibly divisive times.”
