Getty ImagesPresident-elect Donald Trump said he will consider pardoning those involved in the 2021 US Capitol riot on his first day back in office next month.
“These people are living in hell,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press in his first broadcast network interview since winning the November election.
Republicans also vowed to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in the country, but offered to work with Democrats to help some undocumented immigrants brought in. America as a child.
In a wide-ranging sit-down recorded Friday, Trump promised to issue “numerous” executive orders, including on immigration, energy and the economy, once he takes office on January 20.
While suggesting that he would not ask the justice department to investigate Joe Biden, he said that some of his political opponents, including lawmakers who investigated the Capitol riot, should be dropped. prison.
Trump was asked whether he would seek pardons for hundreds of people convicted in connection with that riot, as his supporters stormed Congress three months after his loss in the 2020 election .
“We will look at cases independently,” he said. “Yes, but I will act very quickly.”
“First day,” he added.
Trump continued: “By the way, you know, they’ve been there for years and are in a dirty, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be open.”
The president-elect gave other news in an NBC interview that aired Sunday:
- He issued a warning about whether he would keep the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): “If they pay the bills and if I think they are treating us fairly – they are treating us fairly, then the answer is sure, I will stay with NATO”
- Trump said he would not seek to impose restrictions on abortion pillsalthough when asked for an assurance, he added: “Well, I’m committed. I mean…things will change”
- Republicans said Ukraine will “probably” receive less aid when he returns to the White House
- Trump said he thought “someone has to find out” whether there was a connection autism and vaccines for children – an idea that has been ruled out by many studies around the world. Trump suggested his nominee for Secretary of Health, vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr, would look into the matter
- The president-elect repeated his promise that he would not seek cuts Social securitynor did he increase the eligibility age, although he said he would make it “more effective” without providing further details.
- Forced into his imposed plan tariffs Regarding imports from major U.S. trading partners that would increase American consumer prices, he said: “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”
On immigration, Trump told NBC he would seek through executive action to end so-called birthright citizenship, which allows anyone born in the US to have an American passport, even when their parents were born elsewhere.
Birthright citizenship stems from the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which declares that “all persons born” in the United States “are citizens of the United States.”
“We’re going to have to change it,” Trump said. “We’ll probably have to get back together with everyone. But we have to end it.”
Trump also said he would fulfill his campaign pledge to deport undocumented immigrants, including those whose family members are American citizens.
“I don’t want to break up families,” he said, “so the only way you don’t break up families is you keep them together and you have to bring them all back.”
Trump also said he wants to work with Congress to help so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants protected under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Arrivals America since childhood, which Trump once tried to eliminate.
“I will work with the Democratic Party to come up with a plan,” he said, adding that some of these immigrants have found good jobs and started businesses.
Trump appeared to give mixed signals about whether he would follow through on his repeated vows to seek retribution against political opponents.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden this week issued a sweeping pardon to his criminally convicted son, Hunter. Democrats are said to be considering other general pardons for political allies before he leaves office next month.
Trump appeared to indicate that he would not seek a special prosecutor investigation of Biden and his family as he had claimed.
“I don’t want to go back to the past,” he said. “I’m looking to make our country successful. Retribution will come from success.”
But he also said that members of the now-defunct Democratic-led House committee that investigated him “should be in jail.”
One member of the panel, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, responded to Trump on Sunday.
She said his comments that members of the committee should be jailed were “a continuation of his attack on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic”.
In his interview with NBC, Trump also said he would not direct the FBI to pursue investigations against his enemies.
But he also told the network: “If they are crooked, if they do something wrong, if they break the law, then maybe.
“They came after me. You know, they came after me, and I didn’t do anything wrong.”
