Geraldo Rivera: Pardoning some Jan. 6 rioters 'the right thing'

Media pundit Geraldo Rivera said President-elect Trump would be justified in pardoning some of the people who have been charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"Hopefully, the president understands that what he did on Election Day in 2020 was something that can never again be repeated," Rivera said on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation show, referring to Trump's efforts to deny and undermine his loss to President Biden. "He unleashed that force, he incited those people, he led the way to the Capitol … in words, if not in deeds."

Rivera added that "we can never have the Capitol of the United States desecrated."

"However, having said all that, I believe that the president does the right thing by pardoning these people," he continued. "I think that these folks have suffered enough. Their lives have been completely disrupted. You know, I’m not talking about the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers … the professional agitators and terrorists. But I’m talking about the average schmo who listened to President Trump and, as a result, put his entire life in jeopardy."

Rivera's comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.

More than 1,500 people have been charged in the 2021 Capitol insurrection, the Justice Department said in a Monday update, including more than 600 charged with assaulting, resisting, impeding or obstructing law enforcement officers. Damages and thefts from the building total more than $2.8 million.

Four officers committed suicide in the days and weeks after the riot.

Trump has said one of the first things he would do when he retakes the White House is pardon Jan. 6 defendants, whom he and his allies have painted as wrongly persecuted.

A number of lawmakers and law enforcement officials have expressed outrage at such a suggestion, including Former Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, who in an op-ed over the weekend called the idea "devastating."

Rivera is a longtime television news personality and host who is frequently critical of Trump and said he voted for Vice President Harris.