New Hampshire Public Radio interviewed Jason Riddle, who served time in jail for his participation in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol:

At what point did you stop supporting Donald Trump?

After I got out of prison, Trump had gotten indicted and he put on social media asking people to come out and protest for him. And I remember thinking, ‘What are you doing, Trump? Remember what happened at the riot? Someone might get hurt. Why would you ask people to protest?’

And that’s when I had the epiphany, the duh moment, where I’m like, ‘He asked this because he doesn’t care about anybody other than himself.’ That’s when on the inside I knew and I stopped supporting him.

One thing, too – One thing I did not believe in was change before this experience.

Change in what way?

Just change in general. It was actually a quote of Trump that I would carry and repeat. Trump said, ‘People talk about change. Nobody ever changes.’ And I believed that. And now I believe change is necessary for survival.

So what was your reaction to getting pardoned after serving your time?

It’s almost like he was trying to say it didn’t happen. And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable. I don’t want the pardon. And I also learned that I can reject the pardon. And I did reject the pardon because I’m thinking down the road [if] an employer looks in my background, they see misdemeanors… Misdemeanors with a presidential pardon — I think that tends to draw more attention. And I’m sure that’s fine in the MAGA world with whoever supports Trump, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering if the job I’m applying to, if they like Trump. [Continue reading…]