The incoming vice-president’s remarks on Fox News Sunday with host Shannon Bream slightly deviated from a prior promise by Trump to consider pardoning even those who acknowledged assaulting police officers, saying “a very corrupt system” left them with “no choice”.

“If you committed violence on that day, obviously you should not be pardoned,” Vance said to Bream.

Yet, later off air, Vance assured that pardons remained on the table for at least some convicted in the 6 January 2021 attack, saying the second Trump administration cared about “people who got a garbage trial” and were “unjustly locked up”.