US Vice President-elect JD Vance said Sunday that the people responsible for violence during the Capitol riots “obviously” should not be pardoned.

President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to use his pardon power on behalf of many of those who tried to overturn the results of the January 6, 2021, election that Trump lost.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Vance said the pardon issue was “very simple,” saying those who “peacefully protested” should be pardoned and “if you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” He later said there was “a bit of a gray area” in some cases.

Trump said he would grant pardons to rioters on “day one” of his presidency, which begins on January 20. “I’ll probably do it very soon,” he said recently on NBC Meet the journalists.

“Those people suffered long and hard. And maybe there are some exceptions,” he added. “I have to look. But, you know, if someone was radical, crazy.”

WATCH | The reporter found the protester on January 6, who told her to ‘run away’:

The journalist found the protester on January 6, who told her to ‘run away’

On January 6, 2021, an angry crowd of Donald Trump supporters attacked a CBC News crew working near Capitol Hill. Almost four years later, journalist Katie Nicholson tracked down one of the people who surrounded her that day to find out what he was thinking ahead of another volatile US presidential election.

More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the siege that injured more than 100 police officers and kept lawmakers in hiding as they met to confirm Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Hundreds of people who did not participate in the destruction or violence were charged only with misdemeanors for illegally entering the Capitol. The others were charged with crimes including assault for beating police officers. Leaders of two extremist groups, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, were convicted of treasonous conspiracy for what prosecutors described as plots to use violence to stop a peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Biden.

In a post on X, Vance responded to criticism from supporters of the Capitol rebels that his stance did not go far enough to free all those convicted. “I’ve been defending these guys for years,” he said.

“The president saying he’s going to look at every case (and I said the same thing) is not an aberration,” Vance said. “I can assure you that we care about people who are wrongfully imprisoned. Yes, that includes people who were provoked and it includes people who got a rubbish trial.”