Fox News Host Pushes Back on Trump's Defense of Capitol Riot Pardons: 'You Shouldn't Be Able to Invade the Capitol'

In an interview with the newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump, Fox News Host Sean Hannity can be heard resisting Trump's belief that perpetrators of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots were unfairly prosecuted, even going as far as to condemn their actions.

Hannity conducted the first televised interview of Trump's second presidential term in the Oval Office on Wednesday. The two discussed a variety of topics, including the 47th President's decision to pardon, commute sentences of or dismiss cases of the over 1,500 individuals facing charges in connection to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

"You were very straightforward, you said you would pardon these people that were sentenced for January 6. You did. The only criticism or pushback I've seen is about people that were convicted or involved in incidents where they were violent with police. Why did they get a pardon?" Hannity asked the President directly.

"For a number of reasons. They were in there for three and a half years, that's a long time. Many in solitary confinement, treated like nobody's ever been treated, treated so badly. They were treated like the worst criminals in history," Trump answered. "And you know what they were there for? They were protesting the vote because they knew the election was rigged, and they were protesting the vote. You should be allowed to protest the vote."

"But you shouldn't be able to invade the Capitol," Hannity stated in rebuttal.

Trump then continued to downplay the transgressions of his supporters on Jan. 6, referring to their crimes as "very minor incidents" and accusing media outlets of exaggerating the severity of events.

"Most of the people were absolutely innocent. Forgetting all about that, these people have served a long time. You know how many people we're talking about? 1,500. This should not have happened," Trump continued. "The other thing is some of those people [confronted] police, true, but they were very minor incidents. They get built up by a couple of fake guys that are on CNN. They were very minor incidents."

Trump's running mate, Vice President J.D. Vance, previously stated that those convicted of committing violence on Jan. 6 should "obviously" not be pardoned. However, reporting on the pardons handed out by Trump on Monday, as well as the President's own statements, suggest that Trump was too impatient to distribute pardons on a case-by-case basis, seeking the magnitude of an overarching decision during his first week in office.