Fox News contributor and GOP strategist Karl Rove condemned Donald Trump after the ex-president pledged to pardon those charged for their suspected involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Rove’s blistering response to Trump’s startling pardon pledge came during the latest episode of MSNBC host Ari Melber’s program The Beat.
Melber spoke with Rove last month in Rancho Mirage, California and aired his interview with the Fox News analyst on Wednesday night.
According to Rove, President Joe Biden and the Democrats need to take the issue of January 6 and “go hard at it” to defeat Trump in November.
“If they were smart, they’d take the January 6 and go hard at it,” the former White House deputy chief of staff explained. “And they would say: He wants to pardon these people who attacked our Capitol.”
“What those people did when they violently attacked the Capitol, in order to stop a constitutionally mandated meeting of the Congress to accept the results of the Electoral College, is a stain on our history,” Rove continued.
“And every one of those sons a b------ who did that, we ought to find them, try them, and send them to jail.”
Rove then slammed Trump for Trump’s pledge to pardon those charged and convicted for their involvement in the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
He called Trump’s pardon pledge “one of the critical mistakes made in this campaign” and admitted that “why Trump has done this is beyond me.”
“One of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said: I’m going to pardon those people because they’re hostages,” Rove told Melber. “No, they’re not. They’re thugs.”
“Why Trump has done this is beyond me. If he had said: You know what? I trust our jury system, I trust law enforcement, anybody who assaulted the Capitol ought to be…” Rove continued. “I mean, he said it once or twice, but now he’s appearing in a video with people who assaulted police officers with an intent to take the Capitol by force.”
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“It’s a mistake on the part of the Trump campaign to allow the president’s impulses to identify himself with the people who assaulted the Capitol rather than people who stand for law and order,” Rove concluded.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump has promised to pardon those charged in connection to the January 6 insurrection several times since the insurrection unfolded three years ago.
"We'll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons," Trump said in 2022. "I mean full pardons with an apology to many."
"LET THE JANUARY 6 PRISONERS GO," he repeated on Truth Social in March 2023.
Flash forward to last month, and Trump dubbed those imprisoned for their involvement in January 6 “hostages.”
"You see this spirit from the hostages? And that's what they are, hostages,” the ex-president charged during a rally in Ohio. “They've been treated terribly and very unfairly, and you know that, and everybody knows that.”