Donald Trump teases 2024 White House run, says he’d pardon supporters who attacked U.S. Capitol

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Former President Donald Trump again teased a 2024 White House run in a campaign-style rally in Texas on Saturday night, pledging to consider pardons for supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump, who’s maintained a stronghold on the Republican Party since losing to President Joe Biden, has hinted several times that he’ll run to return to office. Trump and many Republican lawmakers have also claimed without evidence that Biden stole the White House and have downplayed the Capitol attack, which led to more than 700 arrests and left more than 100 law enforcement officers injured.

“If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly,” Trump told the crowd in Conroe, Texas, speaking of his supporters who tried, and failed, to stop Biden’s Electoral College votes from being certified. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”

The Jan. 6 Trump-led protest quickly became violent after speeches by several who refused to accept the 2020 election results, including Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani-who was stripped of his New York law license in part for suggesting, “let’s have trial by combat” that day.

When news spread that Vice President Mike Pence rejected Trump’s pressure to unilaterally dismiss some of Biden’s electoral votes – an authority the framers of the Constitution never granted, Pence said – Trump’s supporters called for his hanging.

Makeshift gallows cropped up within sight of the Capitol, and the mob chanted, “Hang Mike Pence,” as they scrummed with Capitol Police.

According to The Associated Press, at least 150 people have been charged with assaulting police officers and more than 50 face charges of conspiracy.

The US House of Representatives impeached Trump on a charge of inciting an insurrection against his own Capitol.

The AP noted that Trump used pardon powers several times to help political allies and friends, including Roger Stone, his former campaign members Steve Bannon and Paul Manafort, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

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