Video: Fmr. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA05) Calls Trump’s Pardons of 1/6/21 Insurrectionists “Heinous,” “Ludicrous,” a “Bodly Blow Against the American People”

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA05) was on the PBS NewsHour to discuss Trump’s pardon/commutation of the sentences of January 6 rioters, including ones that assaulted police. As Riggleman correctly notes, Trump pardoning these people was “heinous,” “ludicrous,” a “body blow against the American people,” something that “really shakes the foundations of everything we stand for as Americans.” Also, according to Riggleman, “[Trump’s] pardon actually showed that he thought he was responsible for it”; “it is not ‘back the blue,’ it is ‘screw the blue'” Etc. See below for video and a partial transcript of what former Rep. Riggleman had to say…

“It’s heinous. We have insurrectionists that were actually pardoned, and I think it is just ludicrous that that’s happening in the United States of America. I don’t think it’s just a body blow against the Department of Justice, I think it’s a body blow against the American people. And the fact is that the Republican Party can’t claim to run on law and order ever again. For me personally, knowing what happened this day, that these coup-like movements and these insurrectionists are being pardoned by the President of the United States, I think it rattles our allies also and it really shakes the foundations of everything we stand for as Americans.”

• “I think the real-world impact is these individuals are back in their communities where they can organize…run for office…presented with medals, that they actually get positions within certain government offices, maybe on the staffs of Congressional representatives who support…this kind of insanity…I think that is the real-world implications. And also if you look at U.S. Capitol police and those that were attacked that day, it is really this baseline disrespect against law enforcement. It is not ‘back to blue,’ it is ‘screw the blue’. I think that is what you are seeing from the GOP today. And for me, how they are going to recruit the type of people they need when they see there is nobody backing them up, especially when they were trying to protect the Capitol, and our most, my goodness, our most enshrined and valuable institutions that were attacked that day by really ignorant, violent insurrectionists.”
• “I had no idea [I was going to get a pardon]…I was never asked if I wanted to pardon. If I have asked — if they would have asked me, I would have said no. It just really chafes me that I have to have a preemptive pardon and sort of be in the same boat as a bunch of violent mouth breathers, like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers that broke the law and went to jail – and we have to worry about political retribution for doing our duty. And as somebody who has served in the U.S. military, took the oath there…took the oath as a United States congressman, as a J6 committee member, it really does make you feel like a stranger in your own country when you have to worry about a preemptive pardon on actually trying to protect our institutions. And I would do it all over again.”
• “I think when you have preemptive pardons of people
  who try to uphold the law, people who were actually doing
  their work under the United States Congress resolution.
  And when you have pardons of violent, superstition-driven
  fantasists who would rather attack the Capitol than have the
  rational ability to tell fantasy from fiction, or fantasy from
  fact, those who literally believe the Lord of the Rings is a documentary, I think that is the difference here. It is really hard to even compare the preemptive pardons from Biden for January 6 committee members and  congressional members to pardons of violent criminals that have no ability to discern fact from fiction. I think it should absolutely  frighten the American people.”
• “…[Trump’s] pardon actually showed that he thought he was responsible for it. And I think that is something we can look at. Obviously, he didn’t do it for any noble reason. But he was ultimately responsible for what happened on January 6. As far as the foot soldiers, are we saying that people are of sound mind actually think that Qanon is a real thing, if you think about what happened that day, that was purely based on conspiracy theories. Every single person that day, whether they attacked the Capitol or not, believed in something that was false. They believed in this sort of cultlike thing that the election was stolen, whether it was through German servers or through a broken algorithm, or space satellites, or NSA or CIA or white vans with ballots, all the ludicrous, ridiculous things that was pushed into the ecosystem by Trump and his minions. So yeah, it should scare the hell out of people that you have somebody up there that pardoned a bunch of violent people, where he is saying, yeah, it was me, I’m the one who told them to do it. So for me, I don’t care how other people react in Washington, D.C., or care how people react outside of Washington, D.C. What I care about is truth, what I care about is fighting corruption. What we see in the Republican Party is such a deep rot that I don’t know if you can actually take it out. So for me, I would rather be alone telling the truth than with the many following a lie.”