Proud Boys leader pardoned by Trump wants to return to scene of the crime as member of Congress
“If I do run, I want to be in that building that they accused me of trying to storm,” said Enrique Tarrio of his desire to run for office.
A leader of the white nationalist group the Proud Boys — who was convicted for actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — is now eyeing a return to the scene of the crime.
After being pardoned by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was released from prison, where he was serving a 22-year sentence for convictions for multiple felonies, including seditious conspiracy to “oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power.” The judge who sentenced Tarrio said the 40-year-old Trump rioter’s conduct “constituted an official act of terrorism,” according to a Department of Justice memo. Now that he is a free citizen, Tarrio says he wants to return to the U.S. Capitol, but this time as an elected representative.
“If I do run, I want to be in that building that they accused me of trying to storm,” Tarrio recently told the Miami New Times. The former Proud Boy is specifically mapping out a run in a special election in April to represent former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s 1st Congressional District in Florida. Tarrio, who is Afro-Cuban, previously launched a campaign for Congress in 2020 but dropped out before the Republican primary election.
At one point, the violence and crimes committed on Jan. 6 stained the reputations of Tarrio and other rioters — and even Trump — but Trump’s re-election in 2024 “changed the conversation.” After being released from prison in January, Tarrio, sporting a black “Make America Great Again” cap, told Fox 4, “America woke up and I think America made the right decision.” He added, “America’s back.”
Democrats and civil rights groups have long rebuked activists like Tarrio and groups like the Proud Boys for pushing white nationalist and neo-Nazi rhetoric. Their actions on Jan. 6 were particularly castigated by Democrats and some Republicans as a breach of the U.S. constitution. But as Trump reclaimed his political grip on national politics, Tarrio and others feel victorious.
Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol police officer who defended the Capitol building on Jan. 6, dismissed Tarrio’s pursuit for Congress. He told theGrio of Tarrio’s political aspiration: “That’s so crazy.”
“The only reason he’s out [of prison] is because another felon pardoned him,” said Dunn, referring to President Trump, who was criminally convicted in New York City for election fraud and falsifying business records.
“The only guardrail that we have … the only way we can stop that, is the people. But the people kind of failed us in November of doing that,” said the former Capitol officer, who campaigned as a surrogate for former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. He continued, “If we, America, keep electing individuals that clearly don’t give a damn about the Constitution, democracy, decency, then we have to stop viewing ourselves as this great country that believes in equal opportunity for everybody, land of the free, all of that.”
A frustrated Dunn said the United States must “stop pretending” to be the nation of law and justice that it has “aspired to be,” explaining, “we are this nation that approves of having a president that wants to be a dictator … wants to serve a third term, wants to leave when he wants to.”
To the worry and dismay of many, Tarrio isn’t the only Jan. 6 rioter who has sought or is thinking about running for elected office. At least a dozen sought office in the 2022 and 2024 primary elections. Some fear that, like Trump, any Jan. 6 rioter in office would seek to exact revenge for their prosecutions.
“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted,” Tarrio told right-wing conspiracist and radio host Alex Jones of Info Wars.
Though the U.S. has seen members of hate groups like Proud Boys rise to higher office, as the Klu Klux Klan did in the 1900s, Dunn recalled one of Kamala Harris’ campaign slogans, “We’re not going back.”
“We’re not going back because that’s where they want to take us,” Dunn told theGrio. “Donald Trump says the whole thing about the golden age. That’s not even code. I mean, flat-out (he) was saying we’re taking it back to another place where we’re not looking at all people are created equal.”
Taking aim at Trump’s 2024 slogan, “Make America Great Again,” Dunn added, “Give me a year, a year, a date, when America was great for all people, and not just for white males.”
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