ABC News host Jonathan Karl called out Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) after he suggested Jan. 6 rioters “just wandered into the Capitol.”
During a Sunday interview on ABC’s This Week, Karl confronted Cotton with a statement he made following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“It’s past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence,” Cotton said at the time.
“More than three years later, Trump has still not accepted the results,” Karl noted. “He is still misleading the American people.”
Cotton falsely claimed Trump had accepted the election results “that very day.”
“He still hasn’t accepted the results of the election,” Karl pointed out. “He’s also calling the people that attacked the Capitol hostages. And he’s suggesting that he would, may pardon all of them. I mean, I assume you don’t agree with that.”
“He said that he would consider pardons, and some of them probably…” Cotton said.
“And he called them hostages,” the ABC host interrupted. “So you agree these are hostages?”
“Some of them have been held in pre-trial detention longer than the sentences for the crimes with which they are charged,” Cotton remarked. “For people who just wandered into the Capitol, they thought it was open or was on the grounds.”
“I mean, that wasn’t like wandering,” Karl explained. “This wasn’t a tourist visit.”
For his part, Cotton complained that the Department of Justice was not going after “left-wing street militia threatening to assassinate Supreme Court justices.”
“People who were involved in that riot, who assaulted police officers, or who defaced and damaged public property should face the legal consequences,” he added.
“Isn’t it odd that the Republican nominee doesn’t agree with that?” Karl asked.
“What shouldn’t be used is every grandma who had a red MAGA hat that was within a country mile of the Capitol on January 6th shouldn’t be sitting in pre-trial detention for a longer time than the crimes for which they might face a sentence,” Cotton concluded.
