Fact Check: Did Trump Say He Wants January 6 Committee 'In Jail?'

During President-elect Donald Trump's interview on NBC's Meet the Press, his first network appearance since the election, several falsehoods and misleading statements were made.

As reported by Newsweek, Trump inaccurately claimed that the United States was the only country with birthright citizenship, a statement that was not supported by facts. He also presented misleading statistics regarding the number of migrant criminals entering the U.S.

Following the interview, a post from the political commentary channel No Lie With Bryan Taylor Cohen on X (formerly Twitter) went viral, claiming Trump said he wanted to imprison "everyone" on the January 6 investigation committee. The post, which garnered 1.5 million views, quoted Trump saying, "For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail."

In the interview, Trump made unverified allegations about the January 6 Committee, including claims that they had deleted all evidence sent to them and that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had rejected an offer of 10,000 troops to secure the U.S. Capitol before the January 6, 2021, riot.

Trump's full statement suggested that committee members, including Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, should be jailed for their actions. However, he did not explicitly state that he intended to jail them. In the NBC transcript, Trump clarified that he would not direct his FBI director or attorney general to pursue such a course of action, instead focusing on policies like expanding domestic energy production:

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: And Cheney was behind it.

KRISTEN WELKER: Well —

DT: And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee.

KW: We’re going to —

DT: For what they did — honestly, they should go to jail.

KW: So you think Liz Cheney should go to jail?

DT: For what they did —

KW: Everyone on the committee you think —

DT: I think everybody —

KW: – should go to jail?

DT: – on the — anybody that voted in favor —

KW: Are you going to direct your FBI director —

DT: No.

KW: – and your attorney general to send them to jail?

DT: No, not at all. I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to — I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill.

KW: When you say that, it carries weight though. You know, you’ve tapped these people to lead the Justice Department and FBI —

DT: They can do whatever they want.

Trump dismissed Welker’s follow-up questions about the committee's denials of evidence destruction and Pelosi’s alleged rejection of troops, implying that Welker was biased. When Welker stated that the committee denied these claims, Trump responded, “If you could just—just non-biased,” to which Welker replied, "No. I'm just saying they deny it. That’s all I’m saying."