Rioting is wrong regardless if it is conducted by the left or the right,” Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee said on Friday, reacting to the charges brought against the Capitol rioters.
“You can’t have this kind of thing because, frankly, I don’t think you should have it in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, or L.A. either,” the former Arkansas governor told “America’s Newsroom.”
Huckabee said that though he is “happy to see” the Capitol rioters get prosecuted, he hopes the same penalties will “extend” to the rioters who participated in destruction last summer.
“I think I am happy to see these prosecutions. I hope that they will extend to those people who ran against federal buildings in all of these major cities, who tore down government property, who assaulted police officers across the country. It shouldn’t be a left or right thing, this is a right or wrong thing.”
LEFT-WING ACTIVIST CHARGED IN CAPITOL RIOT AFTER SAYING HE WAS JUST THERE TO ‘DOCUMENT’
Huckabee reacted to a left-wing activist who told Fox News last week that he’d followed a pro-Trump mob into the Capitol in order to “document” the siege. John Sullivan is now the subject of a criminal complaint in connection with his alleged participation, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Sullivan can allegedly be heard egging on protesters in a video he provided to the FBI, according to a federal criminal complaint. He has also shared the video to his YouTube and Twitter accounts under the pseudonym Jayden X.
He was charged Thursday in federal court in Washington after being arrested by the FBI. He remains in custody in Toeele County, in his home state of Utah, on a U.S. Marshals Service hold request.
James Sullivan, the man’s brother, told Fox 13 News that he gave tips about his brother to the Salt Lake City FBI. James Sullivan said he found out that his brother was at the Capitol when friends posted pictures online.
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Huckabee said the rioting at the Capitol was indefensible.
“For people to defend anyone who did this thuggish activity whether on the left or the right is nonsense,” Huckabee said.
“We’re supposed to be a people of law and order. There is a way to address your grievances. But, hitting a cop, destroying public property, trespassing, stealing things, vandalizing public property. That’s not the way.”
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.