President Donald Trump’s reputation as a master of gaslighting is well deserved. And his contention that he’s a staunch defender of law enforcement might be the most maddening of all his falsehoods.
Sure, he invented a big lie about a massive conspiracy to steal the 2020 election that’s poisoned the brains of tens of millions of Americans and irreversibly damaged the integrity of the United States’ body politic. But it’s equally risible to profess that “I am a friend of police, more than any president who’s ever been in this office” shortly after pardoning or commuting the sentences of nearly everyone involved with the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
Trump’s contention that he’s a staunch defender of law enforcement might be the most maddening of all his falsehoods.
Those granted clemency by this self-proclaimed champion of law and order included the ringleaders of the attempted insurrection, rioters carrying (or wearing) Nazi and Confederate regalia and chanting their intentions to murder then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as violent criminals who savagely attacked police officers for hours.
The phrase “Back the Blue” has long been used as a cudgel against anyone who dares criticize law enforcement officers and institutions. In this binary, you either unequivocally support cops or you’re a woke antifa terrorist.
Until Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters, “Back the Blue” was at its most absurd during the brief period earlier this decade when modest attempts at police reform were attempted (and mostly failed thanks in large part to police union intransigence). In response, several states passed laws declaring police officers to be a protected identity group.
This led, predictably, to ridiculously overbroad enforcement — like when a 19-year-old in 2021 was charged with hate crime-enhanced criminal mischief and disorderly conduct for allegedly destroying a “Blue Lives Matter” sign and for what the cop described as “smirking in an intimidating manner.”
Now that Trump has escaped prosecution for attempting a self-coup, one would think he would have at least limited his blanket pardons to “nonviolent” rioters, if only out of respect for the thin blue line. In fact, he had even indicated the pardons would be carefully vetted and rioters who attacked cops might not be granted a presidential pass. But in the end, Trump reportedly just impulsively released them all with a one-page declaration, surprising even his own vice president.
Among the convicted criminals whom Trump referred to as “hostages” unjustly arrested for their actions on a “day of love” is Ryan Nichols. NBC News reported on the video evidence implicating Nichols:
“Ryan Nichols said it, if you voted for f---ing treason we’re going to drag your f---ing a-- through the streets,” he said in the video as he marched to the Capitol.
After he was seen on video spraying a giant canister of a chemical weapon at officers inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, Nichols bragged about his conduct on Facebook and called for more violence.
“So if you want to know where Ryan Nichols stands, Ryan Nichols stands for violence,” he said in a video cited by prosecutors.
Pretty unambiguous stuff! And he’s hardly an outlier. Also according to NBC News, Daniel Rodriguez “used a stun gun and plunged it into the neck of Washington Police Officer Michael Fanone multiple times.” Prosecutors said David Dempsey used “his hands, feet, flag poles, crutches, pepper spray, broken pieces of furniture, and anything else he could get his hands on.” Andrew Taake had been sentenced to six years for “assaulting law enforcement officers with bear spray and a metal whip.”
I could go on, with hundreds more names of violent Jan. 6 rioters and the crimes they committed, for which they have now been pardoned. One of the more recognizable rioters is Jacob Chansley — also known as the shirtless, horns-wearing “QAnon Shaman” — who boasted on X about buying “SOME MOTHA F***IN GUNS!!!”
Four officers at the Capitol that day have since died by suicide, which are considered deaths in the line of duty.
Sounds ominous! (Trump, a convicted felon, still cannot legally possess firearms, per federal law.) The Fraternal Order of Police, the country’s largest police union and enthusiastic endorsers of Trump’s campaign, issued a vague and feeble message of disappointment — but not condemnation — of Trump’s pardons.
Meanwhile, four officers at the Capitol that day have since died by suicide, which are considered deaths in the line of duty. More officers attacked that day continue to suffer from post-traumatic stress. Now they have to deal with both the indignity of watching their attackers walk free and the fear that the same people Trump incited to attack the Capitol will now take their retribution on the officers or their families.
One former officer, Aquilino Gonell, posted on X, “The law and order dude is about to pardon those who assaulted the police. Collectively more than 40 rioters attacked me that day.” Among the top comments in response are a right-wing podcaster asking, “How many J6ers did you and your homies pepper spray and shoot rubber bullets at first?” and a pair of MAGA influencers with millions of followers saying, “You should be in prison bruh.”
Another former officer, Michael Fanone, previously testified that he had been “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country” and earlier this month told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “My family, my children, and myself are less safe today because of Donald Trump and his supporters.” And that was before the pardons.
Still another officer, Daniel Hodges, remains on active duty with the Metropolitan Police and worked to protect Trump on his second Inauguration Day. He testified to the House Jan. 6 committee: “To my perpetual confusion, I saw the thin-blue-line flag — the symbol of support for law enforcement — more than once being carried by the terrorists as they ignored our commands and continued to assault us.”
To be sure, Trump’s pardon-palooza didn’t completely leave out the cops. Some of Trump’s pardon giftees were law enforcement officers themselves, and they’re now free to rejoin those ranks. Also, Trump pardoned two officers in Washington, D.C., who were convicted of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct, and obstruction of justice. So it’s not like he doesn’t completely “Back the Blue.”
Trump and his supporters often refer to his 1.5 percentage-point victory in the 2024 popular vote as a mandate. Recent polls have shown roughly 60% of Americans oppose pardoning Jan. 6 rioters — a much larger mandate! And though a handful of Republicans in Congress expressed disapproval of the pardons, most either backed pardons for those who attacked the blue, or cravenly stayed silent.
Though Trump’s apologists dismiss the violence on Jan. 6 as an episode of brief and unfortunate unrest, I find it difficult to imagine that had the mob reached Mike Pence or Nancy Pelosi, or any member of Congress, they would’ve merely stopped their rage march and civilly expressed grievances about the 2020 election. These were violent people caught up in a mob hell-bent on finding an outlet for their rage. And if not for the quick thinking of a rank-and-file Capitol cop, that mob likely would have found at least some of their targets. We could be talking today about the violence they committed when they got their hands on Pence and Pelosi, in addition to a few hundred police officers.
Today, these would-be assassins and insurrectionists who nearly killed cops (and in many cases, openly bragged about it on the internet) are free to live their lives, to own guns and to run for elected office. Trump has even indicated he’s “open” to hosting some of the rioters at the White House, adding, “What they did is they were protesting a crooked election. People understand that also. And they were treated very badly.”
The cops they attacked, meanwhile, are sentenced by Trump to live in fear.