While the Trump administration will receive extensive criticism for a number of issues, few topics have brought the ire of politicians, like issues surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots.

Though violent offenders are clearly on the outs with all parties, President Donald Trump has been clear that he believes many atendees have been unfairly charged and shouldn't have suffered any jail time.

To that end, Trump has kept his promise to pardon Jan. 6 protesters, with the help of his newly minted second in command, Vice President J.D. Vance, as Breitbart News reported.

Harsh Pushback

However, many of the more established lawmakers and those in the media have been unkind to the VP about his part in making sure the president's opinion of justice is carried out.

After President Donald Trump pardoned a large number of January 6 political prisoners, establishment media and Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are attacking Vice President JD Vance, arguing that Trump's actions contradicted Vance's recent interview before the inauguration.

White House insiders tell Breitbart News that Vance expressly advocated for the broad approach Trump used on his first day in office.

Two White House officials and others acquainted with his position told reporters that Vance advocated for Trump and helped establish the pardons and process and approach throughout the transition since election day.

From Insiders

“Throughout the transition, JD was behind the scenes pushing as hard as possible for broad pardons and commutations of the J6 hostages,” a source familiar with Vance’s role in executing this strategy told reporters on Tuesday.

The press should pay more attention to the contentious pardons that former president Joe Biden granted to members of his family in his final hour on Monday, according to a more general statement released by Taylor Van Kirk, Vance's press secretary.

Van Kirk further stated that Vance fully agrees with Trump on this matter.

From the VP's Office

"As Vice President Vance said on Fox News Sunday, pardoning the January 6 protestors would be handled on a case by case basis, which of course meant there was always going to be a large degree of gray area," Van Kirk said on the issue of Vance's work toward the pardons.

Due to the corrupt process of these prosecutions, President Trump rightly decided to grant a broad pardon to all wrongfully convicted January 6 protestors.

Despite the mainstream media’s obsession with January 6, the outgoing administration’s application of presidential pardons for members of the Biden family are far more deserving of additional media scrutiny.

Division Support

McConnell, the former Senate GOP leader who is now a rank-and-file senator, also attempted to divide Vance and Trump in this situation. He stated that he concurred with Vance but did not support Trump following Trump's decision on Monday evening.

However, Vance's actual comments in the Fox News Sunday interview made it abundantly obvious that he believes there is a "gray area" due to the broader miscarriage of justice in these cases.