January 06, 2026

Chairman Aguilar on MS NOW: Donald Trump’s first act when he got to the White House was to pardon these 1,500 people who not only put folks at risk here in the Capitol, but these were bad people before they engaged in the insurrection.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, and former member of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, joined MS NOW’s Morning Joe with hosts Mika Brzezinski and Jonathan Lemire to discuss the five year anniversary of January 6th and the military strikes in Venezuela. You can watch the full interview here and read the full transcript of the Chairman’s interview below. 

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Today marks five years since the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, and to mark the occasion, about an hour from now, a special Congressional hearing will be held to rebut claims about what happened during the attack. In a letter to colleagues, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries writes in part that it will “expose the election deniers and detail the threats to public safety posed by the hundreds of violent felons.” Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar of California. He's the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus and was part of that Select Committee investigating the attack. He was also on the House Floor five years ago when the rioters stormed the Capitol. Can you believe what a difference five years can make? Today, where you stand, where that happened. Many of those people who broke the law, who stormed the Capitol, who traumatized the nation, who threatened the lives of Members of Congress—Nancy Pelosi and the vice president—have been pardoned.

CHAIR AGUILAR: Yeah, Mika. That's exactly right. 1,500 individuals. And that was Donald Trump, for the American public, it's important to understand that that was his first act when he got to the White House, was to pardon these 1,500 people who not only put folks at risk here in the Capitol, but these were bad people before they engaged in the insurrection. Many of them had rap sheets and felony convictions, and Donald Trump wiped that away. And when he did that, he sent these 1,500 people across the country where they came from, and many of them have gone on to reoffend. So at a time when Donald Trump and House Republicans want to cut funding for local law enforcement, they now have to deal with these violent criminals back in their communities when they should be in prison.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: And Congressman, there, of course, was a plaque made to honor those in law enforcement who defended the Capitol that day—some of whom were grievously injured, some of whom later died. That plaque remains hidden. Republicans in Congress have yet to install it. We wanted to get that on the record, but let's also just talk about how things have changed over these last five years. The pardons are a symptom of a bigger issue. I'd argue that President Trump and Republicans have whitewashed what happened that day five years ago. They have tried to change the public narrative and rewrite the history books. How dangerous is it that something like this could be repeated because of those efforts?

CHAIR AGUILAR: It’s incredibly difficult and frustrating, and that's absolutely true. I mean, what House Republicans are trying to do now with another January 6th committee, chaired by the way, by someone who led tours to individuals who engaged in this behavior and were here on campus on January 6th, the day before, you know, Barry Loudermilk was giving tours to these individuals. It's just deeply frustrating because they want to tell a different set of facts. They don't want to talk about these individuals coming to the Capitol and engaging in the insurrection at the request of Donald Trump. They want to talk about other things. They want to change the subject, and they continually want to get away from the true topic at hand, which is Donald Trump sat in the White House for three hours while the Capitol was being attacked, and many of these Republicans were here in the building at the time. And yet Donald Trump doesn't want to acknowledge it, and this is the party of Donald Trump so they won't acknowledge it.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Reports at the time that the president was watching on tv and even rewound some of the more violent clashes so he could see them again. Congressman, let's switch gears now to Venezuela. It certainly seems that the Administration has signaled that this is more than just a quick one-off removing Nicolás Maduro. At minimum, there's going to be some sort of American presence to try to get the oil—the president reiterated that yesterday. Let's get your thoughts on that, and I know a lot of your colleagues have complained about the lack of briefings from the administration. What are some questions you still need answered?

CHAIR AGUILAR: Well, we need a lot of questions answered. And I know that some House and Senate members received briefings last evening, and I think there was a gang of eight meeting as well. These are all things that should have happened before the attack. That's what has happened in prior administrations—Democrat and Republicans. But that's not how Donald Trump operates. Like you said, this is about the oil. And first it was about narcoterrorism and now it's about the oil. And he's shown exactly his true colors here. And I think that's deeply frustrating for the American people who really thought that the forever wars that he campaigned against were something in the past. And now the fact that he refuses to say that there won't be boots on the ground is deeply frustrating to put U.S. service members in harm's way to carry out the oil imperialism that you mentioned in the last segment is just deeply frustrating to those of us who are policy makers and, I think, to the American people who are really struggling right now. And they want to know, when are you going to rebuild our infrastructure? This shouldn't be about the infrastructure down there. How about our infrastructure? How about creating jobs back home here in our communities? And the American people get no relief, while oil executives and these oil companies potentially could get billions of dollars.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar of California, thank you very much for coming on this morning. We really appreciate it.

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