U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, who is set to retire from the force on Friday, slammed President Donald Trump for pardoning rioters convicted or facing charges for their role in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
“It was, I think, a slap in the face to every police officer that was here,” Manger told CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane in an interview shared Wednesday.
Manger was initially pulled out of retirement to take the agency’s top post after his predecessor, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, stepped down in the wake of the deadly riot.
Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons on his first day in office included hundreds of his supporters who had been convicted of assaulting officers, roughly 1,000 nonviolent offenders and around 200 people accused of assaulting police with pending cases. A number of those pardoned have since been rearrested.
Manger told MacFarlane that the day Trump issued the pardons was “probably one of my worst days in this job.”
“I think it sent a chilling message to every police officer in this country,” he said of the pardons.
“That you can be involved in some massive public disorder event and that you could have a politician later on decide that, well, I liked what this other — this side was doing, so we’re going to pardon all these people.”
He also hit back at conspiracy theories tied to the riot, some of which have been peddled by right-wing media figures and Republican lawmakers alike.
“For somebody to make up some story that, ‘Oh, it wasn’t that bad,’ — it is just not true,” he said.
Manger has previously weighed in on Trump’s pardons of Capitol rioters, telling CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in January that he was “concerned” officers would question why they had put themselves in harm’s way because of the move.
He also recently declared that he was “extremely disappointed” that the family of Ashli Babbitt — who was shot and killed while attempting to get through a smashed glass door during the riot — reportedly received a settlement of $5 million from the government.
Manger, in an interview with Roll Call, said matters on the force are “better than they were when I started” although he still sees room for more improvement — including a need for additional funding to fulfill staffing goals.
When asked about the “biggest challenge” for the department moving forward, he stressed that officers should “stay focused on the mission” and protect themselves from “political influence.”
When asked by HuffPost about Manger’s remarks, the White House shared a previously released statement by press secretary Karoline Leavitt that the president “campaigned on pardoning January 6th protestors, won the election with an overwhelming mandate, and delivered on his promise.”