Former President Donald Trump on Wednseday flipped the script on an ABC reporter who asked him about pardoning January 6 protesters.
Trump appeared in person at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention on Wednesday, where his exchanges with ABC News’ Rachel Scott turned heated.
“You’ve called yourself the candidate of law and order,” Scott said, noting that Trump has said he would consider pardoning all January 6 protesters despite police officers getting assaulted that day.
“Were the people who assaulted those 140 officers, including those I just mentioned, patriots who deserve pardons?” Scott asked.
“Well, let me bring it back to modern day, like about five days ago,” Trump responded.
“We had an attack on the Capitol, a horrible attack on the Capitol,” he continued, referencing the anti-Israel protests in Washington, D.C., over the past week.
“You saw the people that were protesting and spraying these incredible monuments, bells, lions, all this magnificent limestone and granite with red paint, red spray paint that will never actually come off, especially on the limestone. I’m a builder. I know about this stuff. You’ll see it in a hundred years from now. They viscously attacked our government. They fought with police. They fought with them much more openly than I saw on January 6th. What’s going to happen to those people?”
Trump said he would “absolutely” pardon the January 6 protesters. “If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.”
“They’ve been convicted,” Scott retorted.
“Well, they were convicted by a very tough system,” Trump said.
Trump continued, referencing the 2020 riots that erupted across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“What’s going to happen to the people in Portland that destroyed that city?” the former president asked. “How come the people that tried to burn down Minneapolis, how come the people that took over a large percentage of Seattle, how come nothing happened to them?”
“No no no, we’re talking about federal buildings,” Trump said as Scott tried to interrupt.
Trump also referenced Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer on January 6, noting that “nobody died that day” except for Babbitt.
“But people died in Seattle. Nobody died, but people died in Minneapolis,” Trump said. “And nothing happens to those people. But you went after the J6 people with a vengeance.”
He also asked, “What about the police that are ushering everybody into the Capitol? Go in, go in, go in. What about that?”
Trump’s appearance also started off with a heated exchange as soon as the former president sat down.
Scott said she wanted to address the “elephant in the room” and proceeded to list Trump’s alleged slights against minorities, according to her. She accused him of having dinner with a “white supremacist” and “attacking” black journalists, among other things.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, first question,” Trump responded. “You don’t even say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network. And I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the black population of this country.”
The former president said he has worked to boost black employment, mentioning the Opportunity Zones program with Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), which was part of Trump’s tax cuts. The program involved a federal tax incentive for private investment in economically distressed communities.
“She was very rude,” Trump said later. “She didn’t ask me a question. She gave a statement.”
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