Here’s How Many People Really Want Trump to Pardon January 6 Rioters

The vast majority of Americans don’t agree with Donald Trump’s priorities for his first days in office—particularly his recently advertised plan to mass-pardon his supporters who ransacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

A November Scripps News/Ipsos survey found that few Americans—just 30 percent—actually support a legal reprieve for the rioters, versus an overwhelming 64 percent of the country that is against it. Just 1 percent of respondents believed that the pardons should be Trump’s first priority.

Another poll found that the majority of Americans associated negative words with the MAGA protest. Approximately 53 percent described the events of the day as an “insurrection,” whereas 33 percent of surveyed respondents likened the actions of Trump’s supporters on January 6 to “patriotism,” according to a CBS News/YouGov poll from January 2024.

Trump has long promised that he would free the men and women who rioted through Congress in 2021, forcing the legislature to delay the certification of the presidential election results. In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday, the MAGA leader said he would act “very quickly” to release the January 6 defendants—as soon as his “first day” in office.

“They’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open,” Trump said.

Several January 6 defendants have attempted to throw their cases out in light of special counsel Jack Smith’s stalled January 6 case against Trump, noting inconsistencies in the legal system’s handling of Trump’s case compared to his followers.

Other Trump supporters who participated in the riot have tried to delay their sentencing until after Trump takes office, assuming that the president-elect will make good on his promises to free some of his most violent and ardent supporters.