North Carolina Senate candidate Michael Whatley has a simple answer when reporters ask about the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol: the people who did it were treated unfairly, and taxpayers should pay them back.
That is not a slip of the tongue. Whatley — the former Republican National Committee chairman now running to replace retiring Senator Thom Tillis — has said it out loud, more than once. And he keeps saying it even after we learned exactly who Trump's blanket pardons set free.
"Ridiculous persecution"
When Trump took office in January 2025, he issued a sweeping pardon for the roughly 1,500 people charged in the Capitol riot — including people who beat police officers with flagpoles and fire extinguishers. Then, in May 2026, his administration went a step further and set up a fund to pay the rioters, calling it an "Anti-Weaponization Fund."
Whatley cheered it on. Speaking at the Brunswick County Republican Party headquarters, he called the Jan. 6 prosecutions a case of "ridiculous persecution." On Fox News that same week, he said Trump "is absolutely right in saying the government was weaponized against him and his allies." When WRAL asked his campaign to explain further, it declined.
Think about what that means. Whatley isn't just brushing past January 6. He wants the government to hand our tax dollars to the people who stormed the Capitol trying to overturn an election.
Who the pardons actually freed
Here is the part Whatley doesn't want to talk about. The pardons weren't a clean slate for a handful of trespassers. According to a study by Lawfare, at least 97 of the more than 1,500 people Trump granted clemency have since been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of crimes unrelated to the Capitol — "almost one in 16."
Among them, Lawfare found at least 14 people charged with sex crimes or crimes involving child sexual abuse material. One of them, Andrew Paul Johnson, was sentenced to life in prison in early 2026 for child molestation — and prosecutors said he promised to buy his victims' silence using the federal restitution money.
One of those cases is from Whatley's own backyard.
A Mint Hill case Whatley can't wave away
David Daniel, of Mint Hill, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer on January 6. Trump's pardon wiped that away. But when FBI agents searched his home in the Capitol case, they found evidence tied to the sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 12.
Daniel's lawyers actually argued that Trump's Jan. 6 pardon should cover the child abuse charges too. A federal judge, Matthew Orso, rejected that, ruling that "child exploitation is not 'conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.'" Daniel then pleaded guilty to the child sex charges.
This is the pardon program Michael Whatley calls "ridiculous persecution" to reverse. This is who he wants us to pay.
This isn't new for Whatley
None of this is out of character. Whatley has spent years excusing January 6 and the lie that fueled it.
After the 2020 election, as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, he went on the radio and claimed "there was massive fraud that took place" in cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, and Philadelphia — even though Trump's allies lost more than 60 court cases and no evidence of widespread fraud ever turned up. After the Capitol was attacked, he refused to blame Trump, and the party he led censured Republican Senator Richard Burr for voting to hold Trump accountable.
He also has a documented blind spot when it comes to sex crimes against children in his own party. As NC GOP chairman, Whatley elevated Harvey West Jr. — a man who pleaded guilty to "taking indecent liberties with a child" — even after activists warned him. When asked about it, he dodged and his campaign attacked the reporters.
So when Whatley defends the Jan. 6 pardons that set child sex offenders loose, it fits a pattern: loyalty to Trump first, every time, no matter who gets hurt.
What North Carolina deserves
A U.S. Senator's job is to stand up for the people of their state — not to defend an attack on our democracy, and not to demand that taxpayers reward the people who carried it out. Michael Whatley has made his choice clear. He'd rather protect Trump's version of January 6 than face what those pardons actually did.
We deserve better.
Source
This post was reported off of American Journal News, with underlying facts drawn from WRAL, Lawfare, NBC News, and QCNews. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Pool Photo via AP.
