‘Why Did They Get a Pardon?’ Hannity Questions Trump on Rioters Who ‘Were Violent with Police’

Hannity: “So, you did run on a platform, you were very straightforward. You said you would pardon these people that were sentenced for January 6.”
Trump: “Yeah, totally.”
Hannity: “You did. The only criticism or pushback I’ve seen is about people that were convicted or involved in incidents where they were violent with police. Why did they get a pardon?”
Trump: “Number of reasons. Number one, they were in there for three and a half years, a long time, and in many solitary confinement, treated like nobody’s ever been treated, treated so badly. They were treated like the worst criminals in history. And you know what they were there for? They were protesting the vote, because they knew the election was rigged and they were protesting the vote. And that’s — you should be allowed to protest a vote. You should be allowed to. You know, the day — when the day comes — “
Hannity: “You shouldn’t be able to invade the Capitol.”
Trump: “No, no, ready? Most of the people were absolutely innocent, okay? But forgetting all about that, these people have served horribly, a long time. It would be very, very cumbersome to go and look — you know how many people we’re talking about?1,500 people. Almost all of them are — should not have — should not have happened. And the other thing is, some of those people with the police, true, but they were very minor incidents, okay? You know, they get built up by a couple of fake guys that are on CNN all the time. They were very minor incidents, and it was time. You have murderers in Philadelphia, you have murderers in Los Angeles that don’t even get any time. They don’t even collect them and they know they’re there to be collected, and then they they go on television and act holier than thou about this one or that one. You had 1,500 people that suffered. That’s a lot of people. You know, they were looking for new people two weeks ago. They were looking. They were looking to charge new people. They have a woman who’s 76 years old that they said was — made a statement that was a little bit out of line.
Years after the fact. This was a political hoax. And you know what? Those people — and I’m not saying in every single case, but there was a lot of patriotism with those people. A lot of patriotism. You know they did a recording, and you know they asked me I do the voice over and I did, do you know it was the number one selling whatever you call it nowadays, album, whatever, song.”
Hannity: “CD?”
Trump: “You don’t know, whatever. It changes every year, right? But it was the number one selling song, number one on billboard, number one on everything, on everything, for so long. People get it. They wanted to see those people released.”
Hannity: “The American people were aware, you told them that what you would do. Joe Biden said he would not do it. Let me move on to the economy. It was so important — “
Trump: “Just — “
Hannity: “Yeah?”
Trump: “I was very clear about it.”
Hannity: “Very clear.”
Trump: “I said I was going to release them, and probably very quickly, and they voted for me and I won in a landslide. And that was only one of the many reasons.”