The public broadly supports pardons of defendants charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots on a case-by-case basis, essentially the plan put forward by President-elect Donald Trump.
While the country generally approves of Jan. 6 pardons by a slight margin, many more back a selective process, including 68% of Democrats.
In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, 67% of voters back a case-by-case pardon that presumably would not include those charged with violence. Slightly more Republicans than Democrats back a blanket pardon.
Trump has been vague about just which of the estimated 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants he would pardon, but he has generally mentioned the hundreds who did not engage in violence and those ushered into the Capitol by police.
“Oh, absolutely, I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” Trump told a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists during the 2024 campaign. “They were convicted by a very tough system.”
In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, 67% of voters back a case-by-case pardon that presumably would not include those charged with violence. Slightly more Republicans than Democrats back a blanket pardon. Trump has been vague about just which of the estimated 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants he would pardon, but he has generally mentioned the hundreds who did not engage in violence and those ushered into the Capitol by police. “Oh, absolutely, I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” Trump told a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists during the 2024 campaign. “They were convicted by a very tough system.”
