White House unveils website bashing Mike Pence, dubbing J6 demonstrators ‘patriots’ on five-year anniversary of Capitol riot

WASHINGTON — The White House to mark the five-year anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, unveiled a new website that bashed former Vice President Mike Pence and hailed the “patriots” who halted certification of the 2020 election by marching to Congress in protest and later breaching the US Capitol.

The site also touted federal watchdog and congressional investigations contesting “key narratives” of the “date which will live in infamy” while blaming “political failures” for the prosecutions of hundreds of President Trump’s supporters who were pardoned shortly after he returned to office in January 2025.

That included not immediately deploying National Guard troops to quell unrest as then-Capitol Police chief Steven Sund had asked.

The White House described the demonstrators’ walk down Constitution Avenue as “orderly and spirited, with flags, signs, and chants” before noting Pence “in an act of cowardice and sabotage” declined to return slates of disputed electoral count from states to their legislatures.

Former Pence aide Marc Short fired back in an X post: “And I guess yall [sic] would have been okay if Kamala had refused to certify the 2024 results?”

House Democrats held a counter-hearing on Capitol Hill with former police officers and lawmakers who witnessed Trump’s mob delaying certification firsthand — or prosecutors who brought charges against both the violent rioters and non-violent protesters for obstructing the official proceeding.

“Because of the extraordinary bravery of the U.S. Capitol Police, other law enforcement officials and the resolve of the Congress to return that night, this unprecedented attack on our country and on our democracy failed,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in his opening remarks.

Jeffries also noted how several of the roughly 1,500 pardoned J6ers were prior offenders or went on to be convicted of crimes.

House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also spoke at the hearing about the “insurrection” — though the White House pointed out no defendants were convicted under that federal statute — and accused Trump of continuing “to lie about what happened that day.”

“I saw on TV that he was claiming that we did not ask for the National Guard,” Pelosi said. “For over three hours we begged him to send the National Guard! He never did it. He took joy in not doing. He was savoring it.”

Video footage promoted on the White House’s new site from an HBO documentary the former Speaker of the House’s daughter shows Pelosi telling a top aide that she took “responsibility” for the chaos.

“We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have,” the then-House Democratic leader told her chief of staff Terri McCullough. “This is ridiculous.” 

The White House maintained that many of the nearly 1,600 “patriotic Americans prosecuted for their presence at the Capitol” were “mere trespassers or peaceful protesters treated as insurrectionists by a weaponized Biden DOJ.”

“President Trump took decisive action to pardon January 6 defendants who were unfairly targeted, overcharged, and used as political examples,” the site also stated. “They were not protected by the leaders who failed them. They were punished to cover incompetence.”

More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured in the melee on the Capitol’s steps, though the only deaths recorded that day were four protesters — including Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer just outside the House chamber.

The White House’s site also faulted Capitol cops for “inexplicably removing barricades, opening Capitol doors, and even waving attendees inside the building—actions that facilitated entry—while simultaneously deploying violent force against others.”

They also said the officers “deliberately” escalated tensions when they chose to “fire tear gas, flash bangs, and rubber munitions into crowds.”

“These inconsistent and provocative tactics turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos,” the site noted.

Trump supporters celebrated their pardons and commutations on the National Mall as well on Tuesday, leading to a small scuffle outside the White House on 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue between protesters and counter-protesters.

“The U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division briefly detained and questioned an individual near the corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Ave NW after responding to reports of a nearby altercation,” a rep said in a statement after video footage circulated of a woman having her bullhorn grabbed away and getting into a spat.

“No arrests were made and the individual was released without further incident,” the spokesperson said.