ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday when the Democratic Party will stop discussing the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol protest, but the leading Democrat responded with a rant on the topic.
Many Democratic congressmen marked the fourth anniversary of the riot by making social media posts condemning the event. However, Smith, on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” suggested that Democrats should have moved on after President Donald Trump’s November election victory.
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“When are we going to let go of January 6th? When are you going to let that go? Because, I mean, the man was impeached twice and convicted on 34 felony counts and still reelected,” Smith said. “I mean, at some point in time, somebody like [Democratic Illinois] Senator Durbin and others, who was asking [Attorney General] Pam Bondi about, you know, ‘Are you willing to admit he lost the election?’ — it’s like, enough of that.”
“Because the American people clearly have spoken. At least 77-plus million of them have spoken. He won the Electoral College vote. He won the popular vote. He won the swing states,” he continued. “They’ve said what they’ve had to say. When are y’all going to let that go?”
Jeffries responded by telling Smith that Americans should never “forget” the riot and recounted his own personal experience that day.
“It was an extraordinary event. I was there when we were debating, as Congress does, the certification of the election. And we were told that a mob has breached the Capitol. They’re on the second floor. They’re a few steps outside of the House chamber,” Jeffries said. “And hit the ground and be prepared to secure the gas masks that are underneath your seats, because there were people who were trying to stop the peaceful transfer of power. And this is the greatest democracy in the history of the world. So we can’t forget January 6th.”
“I’m not suggesting that it’s a core issue moving forward in terms of how we are making our case to the American people,” he continued. “But we also can’t ignore the fact that in one of his first acts, President Trump chose to pardon violent felons who brutally assaulted and beat police officers.”
The House Minority Leader continued to criticize Trump’s pardons before acknowledging that Democrats’ “core issues” should be bettering Americans’ lives, including economically.
Trump repeatedly vowed to pardon Jan. 6 protesters during his 2024 presidential campaign, asserting during a May 2023 CNN town hall that he would pardon a “large portion” of them “very early on” in his second administration.
Of the roughly 1,583 defendants who were federally charged in connection with the riot, 608 defendants faced accusations of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers or obstructing those officers during a civil disorder, according to the Justice Department. Another 174 defendants faced charges of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found in March 2024 that certain defendants received wrongful extensions of their sentences. Even Durbin and Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren denounced the use of solitary confinement for defendants ahead of their trials, Politico reported in April 2021.
Trump’s pardons followed the mass clemency granted to more than 2,500 individuals by former President Joe Biden, which enabled dangerous criminals, including a cop killer, to walk free in one of his final acts before leaving office.
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