The first major conservative gathering since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration quickly became a stage for a symbolic homecoming: pardoned January 6 rioters, some of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement while storming the U.S. Capitol four years ago, were now celebrated as heroes among the party’s loyal base.
“The J6ers are here at CPAC!” said former Trump strategist Steve Bannon on Thursday, drawing raucous cheers at the Conservative Political Action Conference. While the annual gathering has a history of promoting Trump’s efforts to falsely portray all those who participated in the deadly riot as victims of entrapment or unfair prosecution, this year’s CPAC has embraced that sentiment more strongly than ever in the wake of Trump granting all of the J6 rioters clemency on his first day back in office.
At a panel discussion on Friday called “The J6 sham,” conservative commentator Julie Kelly thanked Trump for the pardons and tapped into a growing sense of solidarity among those who stormed the Capitol and their supporters. “Now it’s cool,” she said. “Everyone’s like, free the J6ers! It’s the cause of the day, but it wasn’t back then.”
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The sentiment at the National Harbor in Maryland over the four-day gathering, which featured speeches from Vice President J.D. Vance and Trump ally Elon Musk, is at odds with the rest of the country. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that more than 80% of Americans oppose pardons for those convicted of violent crimes, and a little over half disagree with pardons for nonviolent offenders. Yet, at CPAC, the atmosphere was one of triumph. Several pardoned rioters were interviewed on Bannon’s “War Room” show in the CPAC exhibition complex. For many of them, this year’s CPAC represented a moment of vindication. “We became celebrities here. It’s weird,” said Brian Mock, who was convicted of six…
