Donald Trump was confronted right to his face, while trapped in the confines of Air Force One, by a reporter who wanted answers on why he decided to pardon hundreds of January 6th insurrectionists within his first hours in office last month, despite their convictions of violent crimes against law enforcement officials.
Trump’s Super Bowl Sunday was a rather busy one, as he sat for a downright weird pre-game interview with Fox News’s Brett Baier — during which he predicted another Chiefs Super Bowl win that did not come true — before boarding Air Force One where he took questions from reporters as he prepared to become the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl game.
He also spent just a few minutes upon his arrival at the Ceasar Superdome meeting with first responders and families who were involved in the New Year’s Day Bourbon Street attack — which Donald Trump falsely blamed on immigrants at the time — and made sure to grab one of his infamous grinning, thumbs-up PR photos.
President Donald Trump meets the families of the victims and first responders from the January 1st terrorist attack in New Orleans. #SBLIX pic.twitter.com/jqPRI6Oyf0
— NFL (@NFL) February 9, 2025
That little meet-and-greet stunt only adds to the irony of what the reporter called him on during the Air Force One press gaggle.
“You said you said you’re going to honor first responders today, but you pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted first responders,” the reporter said, straight to Trump’s face. “Why did you do that?”
Trump stuttered and stumbled a bit, saying. “Who? I…”
“You are going to meet with first responders today, but you pardoned people who assaulted first responders–,” the reporter doubled down.
“I pardoned people who were assaulted themselves! They were assaulted by our government! I pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our government. That’s who were assaulted and they were treated unfairly,” Donald barked back in response. “There’s never been a group of people in this country outside of maybe one instance I can think of, but I won’t get into it, that were treated more horribly than the people of J6.”
“So no, I didn’t assault. They didn’t assault– they were assaulted, and what I did was a great thing for humanity.”
You can watch that confrontation here:
Reporter: You are going to meet with first responders today, but you pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted first responders.
Trump: No, I pardoned people who were assaulted themselves… by our government. I didn’t assault. They didn’t assault. They were assaulted. What I did… pic.twitter.com/LbzrbFM6rb
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 10, 2025
Featured image via screen capture