CNN’s David Urban hit back on the network’s panel Monday evening, defending Jan. 6 attendees by arguing that not all of the people involved were violent.
Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Department of Justice prosecuted more than 1,200 individuals from nearly all of 50 states in connection with the attack. On “The Source with Kaitlan Collins,” Urban said that while he believes those who attacked Capitol Police during the incident should be jailed, he said that there were also attendees who had been recorded peacefully walking through the building.
“This issue of democracy in January 6 has been litigated not only in the court system for the big, long investigation. Maybe someone heard of it — you know, Jack Smith. I don’t know if anybody remembers that name,” Urban said. “That went on for years. Nothing came of it. It kind of fell apart.”
“We had an entire election where Democrats ran on democracy in January 6, and the American people dismissed it as well. So I think, hopefully, right, I agree with the beating of police officers,” Urban added. “Donald Trump said it himself. Violence [is] never acceptable. Those people that beat the police officers, that injured a police officer, should go to jail. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. But there’s a completely different story here on the other side of the Capitol, where the stanchions were moved, where people were allowed in, doors were opened.”
While some of the video footage from the attacks shows people breaking into the Capitol and confronting officers, other clips have shown attendees peacefully walking through the building.
CNN host Kaitlan Collins interrupted Urban to say that police officers on duty that day testified to Congress that they had been “outnumbered,” which led to protesters walking into the building. Urban, however, pushed back, telling the group and viewers to “watch the video” themselves. President Joe Biden’s former communications director, Kate Bedingfield, said that the CNN contributor couldn’t “discount that there was violence that day.”
“I’m not discounting it,” Urban said. “There were people in the crowd that were violent, but to say the entire crowd was violent is completely not correct. I mean, look, let’s look at the prosecutions … You know how many people got prosecuted by the FBI, by the Department of Justice? There are 1,500 people that were prosecuted.”
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The group continued to argue over Urban’s statement, with the CNN contributor continuing to say that those who attacked police officers should be jailed. Former Trump Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews asked if all attendees should be “made an example.”
“Shouldn’t they make an example out of these people, though?” Matthews asked. “Like, this was wrong. They shouldn’t be allowed to trespass.”
“Everybody should not be treated equally. They were violent criminals, right? They shouldn’t be treated equally,” Urban said.
Matthews continued to ask Urban if some of the Jan. 6 attendees should be pardoned, as she highlighted President-elect Donald Trump’s “promise.”
“He didn’t promise to pardon everybody. He said he’s going to promise. He’s going to look at it [on a] case-by-case basis, but just be factual. Those are the words. Right? And to be factual, the only person that died on January 6, there was one person that died, Ashli Babbitt was the only person who died,” Urban said.
In a December interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump told the host that he plans to look at “individual cases” for those who were charged in the Jan. 6 attack. In May 2023 Trump told Collins that he would plan to pardon a “large portion” of those federally charged, but added that he would look at cases when asked about pardoning four Proud Boys members who were charged.
Featured Image Credit: Anthony Crider
