Trump Hugs Convicted Jan. 6 Protester, Who Called Execution Of Politicians, On Campaign Trail

Former President Donald Trump hugged a woman during a campaign stop in New Hampshire who served jail time for her actions during the 2021 January 6 Capitol riot.

“President Trump, will you please sign my Trump backpack that I carried up to Jan. 6?” said Micki Larson-Olsen, a member of the QAnon adjacent movement known as Negative 48. “I went to jail for 161 days for Jan. 6. I’m an Iraq War veteran.”

Larson-Olsen has called for the execution of politicians in a number of press interviews.

“Patriots, I hear the woman,” replied Trump as he hugged her and promptly signed her backpack. “Listen, you just hang in there…You’ve been through too much. You’re going to wind up being happy.”

The woman was convicted for not responding to police orders during the protests.

Trump is on the campaign trail attempting to build support for his presidential campaign. While he currently leads Republican primary polling by a large margin, there is plenty of time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to catch up once he officially announces his campaign.

Other competitors like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have also entered the race, but have yet to make waves with Republican voters.

Trump has a history of supporting convicted January 6 rioters, even offering to pardon them if he wins the presidency in 2024. Trump even featured in a song created by many of the imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters, which reached the top of iTunes’ music chart in March. The song featured the “Jan. 6 Choir” singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” with a backtrack of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

If he wins the Republican primary race, he will almost certainly face President Joe Biden on the Democratic side.

While Trump has reduced some aspects of his “rigged election” rhetoric in recent months, he has not publicly admitted his original loss to Biden in 2020.

Article by Jakob Mieszkowski-Lapping