As CNN Panel Complains About Trump’s J6 Pardons, Scott Jennings Reminds Them of Inconvenient Truth

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Republican strategist Scott Jennings told a CNN panel Monday that many Black Lives Matter rioters avoided punishment in 2020 after liberal commentators complained about pardons President Donald Trump issued to participants of the riot at the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump issued a blanket pardon Monday to more than 1,500 people convicted of crimes surrounding the storming of the Capitol building during the certification of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021. Jennings reminded former Obama administration officials David Axelrod and Van Jones, who claimed the Jan. 6 rioters received insufficient punishment, that many of the participants in the Capitol riot had their lives “ruined,” but many of the Black Lives Matter rioters escaped punishment.

“Here is what I think. Were these people punished? Yes. Were they ruined financially? Yes. Did they spend time in jail? Yes. Have their lives been ruined? Absolutely,” Jennings said. “And one of you said earlier, Van or Ax, that you think this sends a terrible signal you can get away with things like this. As though we‘ve never had a moment in recent American history when people were not punished for rampaging around when it shouldn’t have been. It was in summer of 2020.”

“I see that a little bit different than you do,” Jones said, prompting Jennings to respond, “And those people were never even charged.”

The riots that followed the death of George Floyd in police custody in May 2020 killed at least 24 people and caused nearly $1 billion in property damage.

“I do see it differently in that I don’t like it when people tear up buildings at all. I’m not a part of some pro-riot, pro-crime lobby,” Jones said after a back-and-forth with Jennings. “But I really don’t like when people attack police officers. I really don’t like it at all. I’m the son of a police officer. My uncle is a police officer. I don’t like it at all. If you attack a police officer, before you get any lenience, before you get any support from this society, you should apologize and they didn’t. That‘s wrong. And you yourself and others said you would have a problem if the violent ones were let go.”

Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy provided then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a co-founder of the Daily Caller and Daily Caller News Foundation, access to over 41,000 hours of video footage of the Capitol riot, Axios reported. Video Carlson aired showed Capitol Police officers escorting one protestor, Jacob Chansley, also known as the “QAnon shaman,” through the halls of the building.

“I do think it’s important to note that these people, whatever they did, whether it was just accidentally walking in or doing something much, much worse, Elliott, you can correct me if I’m wrong, most of them, if not all of them, did get punished, served some kind of time, and my assumption is virtually all of them had their lives effectively ruined,” Jennings said after a further back-and-forth with Jones.

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation

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