Gay Navy veteran Jason Riddle told New Hampshire Public Radio last week that he was rejecting Donald Trump’s pardon for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S Capitol.
Riddle had served 90 days in jail for participating in the riot at the Capitol where he stole a bottle of wine and a book on Senate procedure.
Riddle told NHPR reporters Jackie Harris and Rick Ganley that he didn’t really turn away from his support of Trump until after he had gotten out of prison, after Trump had been indicted, and Trump had posted on social media asking the public to come and and protest in support of him.
“I remember thinking, ‘What are you doing, Trump? Remember what happened at the riot? Someone might get hurt. Why would you ask people to protest?’” he recalled.
“It’s almost like he was trying to say it didn’t happen. And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable.”
Navy Veteran and convicted J6 rioter Jason Riddle
“And that’s when I had the epiphany, the duh moment, where I’m like, ‘He asked this because he doesn’t care about anybody other than himself,” Riddle added. “That’s when on the inside I knew, and I stopped supporting him.”
Riddle said he learned about the blanket pardons for the J6 rioters when he saw the news on TV at the gym while he and his husband were working out.
And, he told NHPR, he rejected the pardon because “It’s almost like he [Trump] was trying to say it didn’t happen. And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable.
“I don’t want the pardon,” he continued. “And I also learned that I can reject the pardon. And I did reject the pardon because I’m thinking down the road [if] an employer looks in my background, they see misdemeanors… Misdemeanors with a presidential pardon — I think that tends to draw more attention. And I’m sure that’s fine in the MAGA world with whoever supports Trump, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering if the job I’m applying to, if they like Trump.”