Ben Shapiro on January 6: “If you assaulted a cop, it seems to me you should go to jail for whatever reason you assaulted the cop”

Shapiro made these remarks days before Trump's pardons

Written by Media Matters Staff

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You can find more about Donald Trump's January 6 pardons here:

Fox News stars have spent the months since President Donald Trump’s election assuring their audiences that Trump’s long-stated promise to pardon what he termed the “J6 hostages” would be limited only to nonviolent offenders who participated in storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. But on his first day in office, Trump pardoned or commuted to time served every person convicted in connection to their actions that day, including those who violently assaulted law enforcement and participated in seditious conspiracies.

Trump’s Tuesday night grant of clemency “to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack” includes pardons for “for violent offenders who went after the police on Jan. 6 with baseball bats, two-by-fours and bear spray and are serving prison terms, in some cases of more than a decade,” The New York Times noted. He also pardoned or commuted the sentences of several leaders of the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

From the January 13, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show 

BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): Now all the people who are said to be disappointed by the fact that the Trump administration actually has to operate in the real world, get ready. The Trump administration actually has to operate in the real world, and there's no reason to be disappointed about that. That's what happens when you win. When you win, it turns out that many of these sort of outlandish things that you say are not applicable in real life. So there's bound to be some disappointments.

And I, for one, am pleased with the realism because I would prefer that things get done even if it's 70% of the pie that I want. This happens to hold true with regard to, for example, the January 6th arrestees. So JD Vance, the vice president-elect of the United States, he was asked on Fox News Sunday about who President Trump would pardon day one with regard to January 6th. And he said the reasonable thing, which is people who are guilty of nonviolent offenses will be pardoned. People who did violent things against cops should not be pardoned. I know there are a lot of people online who are very angry about JD Vance saying that. I don't know why. If you assaulted a cop, it seems to me you should go to jail for whatever reason you assaulted the cop. Here's JD Vance saying, what is the rational and reasonable thing.

...

SHAPIRO: OK. So again, what he's saying there is perfectly reasonable and rational. And there are people online who are, of course, going nuts. Everybody should be released. They're all political detainees. I mean, some are, and some assaulted cops. And that's not quite the same thing.