Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Sunday he is confident former President Trump would examine the facts before issuing blanket pardons of Jan. 6 rioters.
“I believe President Trump will take a look at it and he’ll do what he feels like is best. I have my complete faith in President Trump that he pays attention to every little detail, and he will do what’s right for the American people,” Mullin said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” about Trump’s pledge to pardon Jan. 6 rioters if elected to office.
Mullin, who served in Afghanistan, helped police officers barricade the doors inside the House chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, and came face-to-face with rioters as they tried to breach the chamber where lawmakers were hiding.
In his Sunday interview, he recalled visiting a triage center after the Capitol attack in 2021 and seeing police officers wounded from confrontations with angry rioters.
He distinguished between those violent rioters, who he said must serve their time, and others who Mullin said were unfairly labeled as domestic terrorists.
“These individuals that I feel like they have locked up right now, they were caught up in the political environment. They were thrown into a court system that there was no way they’re going to get a fair system. And I believe that President Trump is going to take a hard look at that. And those that were innocent, they should be, they should be relooked at and hopefully pardoned by [the] president,” Mullin said.
“Those individuals that attacked police officers, that physically attacked police officers, you know, they committed a crime, and they need to pay for that,” he added.
Trump, however, said explicitly he would pardon rioters who attacked police officers in an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Wednesday.
“Absolutely I would. If they’re innocent. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” Trump said when asked by ABC News’s Rachel Scott whether he would pardon rioters who assaulted police officers.
When Scott noted that they had been convicted, Trump said, “Well, they were convicted by a very, very tough system.”