CNN's pro-Trump contributor flails to respond to January 6 pardons for violent offenders
Scott Jennings: “It's Donald Trump's position that they paid enough. And that's his prerogative as the president. I don't like the idea that people who assaulted police officers are getting any kind of leniency.”
Published
Citation
From the January 21, 2025, edition of CNN News Central
SCOTT JENNINGS (CNN CONTRIBUTOR): Well, first of all, I don't particularly care for what happened on January the 6th. I didn't like it the day that it happened. I don't like it today. I think it was a terrible day. I don't think the people who participated in it should have done that, and it should never happen again. That's number one.
Number two, the people who did participate in it, by and large, all face some kind of punishment. Great many hundreds, thousands went to jail. Some have already been in jail and completed their sentence. Most were financially ruined. Their lives have been ruined. They paid a severe price. It's Donald Trump's position that they paid enough. And that's his prerogative as the president.
I don't like the idea that people who assaulted police officers are getting any kind of leniency, because I think that is a special kind of crime. I'm a strong defender of police officers, and I do take the term “law and order" and “back the blue" very seriously. But there's no political benefit for Trump to do this. This isn't a particularly popular thing to do. However, I would point out he did campaign on it. He made it perfectly clear what he intended to do, and he followed through on it.
I do think and hope that this now will put this behind us, that this is over. The American people adjudicated this in the election as a political matter, and hopefully it never, ever happens again in this country.