Trump Suggests Paying “Reparations” To Pardoned Capitol Rioters

During an interview with Greg Kelly this week, Donald Trump suggested that his administration might actually pay reparations to the Capitol Rioters that he pardoned. Kelly claimed that these poor people lost income and opportunities and time because they were in jail, and Trump seemed sympathetic to that and added that they were treated “unfairly.” Nothing could be further from the truth, but now that the idea is out there, they are going to push hard for it, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

During an appearance on Newsmax this week, Donald Trump was asked by host Greg Kelly, whether or not the administration was considering any form of reparations for the pardoned capitol rioters. And to that question, Donald Trump said, yeah, it's something that we're talking about. The Trump administration is legitimately considering giving some form of reparations to the criminals who stormed the capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power on January 6th, 2021. It is disgusting enough that these people were pardoned. It's even more disgusting to think that your tax dollars could end up in their pockets because Donald Trump wants to pay off his insurrection army, because that's what this would be. These aren't reparations. These would be loyalty payments. I'm gonna put cash in your pocket. Remember that Next time I need you. That's what this is. But let me read you the exchange that took place. Greg Kelly asked the question quote, is there any talk of, because they lost opportunity, they lost income, any kind of compensation fund.

Now, before I get to Trump's response, let me point out that, yeah, Greg Kelly's right. These people lost opportunities. They lost income, and they lost time. Do you know why that happened to them? Because they stormed the capitol and broke the law. People break the law in the United States. Every day they get convicted, they go through due process, and they go to jail, and they lose income. They lose time with their family. Are we gonna talk about reparations for every single person that's ever broken the law? Hell, we don't even give reparations to people who are wrongfully incarcerated most of the time. So no, these people don't deserve anything. The pardon doesn't mean that they were innocent. The pardon just means you don't have to carry this burden anymore. Some of these people, by the way, were supposed to be in jail for the next two decades and they're free. But Trump responded. Well, there's talk about that. A lot of the people that are in government now talk about it because a lot of the people in government really like that group of people. They were patriots as far as I was concerned. I talk about them a lot. They were treated very unfairly.

No, they weren't. In fact, according to many of the judges that oversaw the cases, including at least one Trump appointed judge, they were getting off because they said the prosecutors, the federal government prosecuting these people were going too easy on them. They were treated with kid gloves when even a Trump appointed judge wanted these prosecutors to be able to throw the book at 'em, and they didn't do it. These people ended up in that situation through their own decisions. Yes, they were brainwashed by Donald Trump. Absolutely, there's no doubt about that. But they are still responsible for the choices that they make as human beings. And if you make the choice to break the law, brainwashed or not, you suffer the consequences. These prosecutions were not rushed. We still had prosecutions that were waiting to go through. When the pardons came through, judges actually said, look, we're not even gonna move forward with the case because we assume Trump's gonna pardon you. That happened in December and January.

They got all sorts of special treatment. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise because the facts are the facts. What you hear from Trump or what you hear from Greg Kelly or Marjorie Taylor Greene, is nothing but lies in propaganda. These people were not treated so unfairly, they were given special treatment. They were given light sentences, at least in the beginning before the judges started to get mad. Like, why are you not doing more?