As Donald Trump returns to the White House, his desire to recast January 6 as a day of “love and peace,” as he called it during his campaign, seems as strong as ever. Earlier this week, he told the NBC reporter Kristen Welker that he would “most likely” pardon Capitol rioters on day one. This week’s Radio Atlantic shares the first episode of our series about January 6 published just before the 2024 election, called We Live Here Now. Hanna Rosin and co-host Lauren Ober enter a universe of alternative facts, speaking with J6 prisoners and their families, and following a J6 case on which Ober was a juror. Mostly, though, the series is about their neighbor, who they discovered one day is a crucial character in the retelling of January 6. Subscribe to We Live Here Now wherever you get podcasts. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | PocketCasts | YouTube –- Share understanding this holiday season. For less than $2 a week, give a yearlong Atlantic subscription to someone special. They’ll get unlimited access to Atlantic journalism, including magazine issues, narrated articles, puzzles, and more. Give today at TheAtlantic.com/podgift. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
The South rewrote the history of the Civil War slowly. What we now know as the Lost Cause myth built steam over time, with lectures, magazine stories, and then statues and monuments, until eventually it became for some Southerners the official narrative of the war. Eventually, meaning like many decades later.
But back then, there was no TV, no Twitter, no Truth Social to speed up the process of revising history. A few days ago, Trump did his first post-election interview on NBC with Christian Welker. And by most accounts, his rhetoric seemed tempered. A typical headline about the interview was, "'Trump Pools on Taking Revenge Against Foes.'"
But there was one part about halfway through the interview when Trump did not seem so mellow.
These people have been in jail, and I hear that jail is a hellhole. They've done reports, and you would say that's true. They've done reports. This is the most disgusting, filthy place. These people are living in hell.
The jail he's talking about is the D.C. jail. These people, he mentions, have been charged with crimes related to the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. And the big question Trump has just answered is whether he still plans to follow through with his promise to pardon those people who were convicted for the insurrection.
To which he responded... We're looking at it right now, most likely, yeah. Those people have suffered long and hard.
And then he was asked about officials on the January 6th Congressional Committee, including Liz Cheney, people who put the real facts of that day on the official record.
I think those people committed a major crime. And Cheney was behind it. And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee. For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.
Trump's desire to rewrite January 6th as a day of love and peace, as he said during his campaign, seems as strong as ever. The day Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, Trump posted on Truth Social, does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J6 hostages who have now been imprisoned for years?
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