Donald Trump's January 6th Pardon Problem

Trump's promise to pardon the rioters on day one is potentially politically diasatrous

\During a long interview with Time Magazine for their Man of the Year issue, Donald Trump reiterated his promise to pardon the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Trump told the reporters and editors from Time:

Well, we're going to look at each individual case, and we're going to do it very quickly, and it's going to start in the first hour that I get into office. And a vast majority of them should not be in jail. A vast majority should not be in jail, and they've suffered gravely. And I say, why is it that in Portland and in many other places, Minneapolis, why is it that nothing happened with them and they actually caused death and destruction at levels not seen before? So you know, if you take a look at what happened in Seattle, you had people die, you had a lot of death, and nothing happened, and these people have been treated really, really badly. Yeah, it's an important issue for me. They've suffered greatly, and in many cases they should not have suffered.

Let me translate that: Donald Trump’s first act in office will free people from prison who committed political violence on his behalf. Some speculated that Trump was backing away from his promise to issue these pardons to focus on more broadly appealing issues. But Trump has never been super well-acquainted with his own political self-interest.

If Trump follows through on issuing pardons for the insurrectionists in his first days in the White House, it would be a case of historic political malpractice and provide Democrats with a golden opportunity to start our comeback.

The Polling on Pardons

Despite Donald Trump’s election, people are not okay with what happened on January 6th.