What happened is not okay, and it can't happen
again. It shouldn't happen again. It doesn't
need to happen again. I don't need his pardon.
I don't need his approval, nor do I want it.
Hey, everybody. Rich Comadie here at LeavingMAGA
.org for the Midas Touch Network. We got a brand
new testimonial for you today of someone who
left MAGA. Now, this is someone you may have
already seen, actually, in the news. His name
is Jason Riddle. from the great state of New
Hampshire. For those of you who might be recognizing
him, Jason is someone who rejected a January
6th pardon. Jason, I want to thank you for being
here. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate
it. I know that there are many out there in the
Midas Mighty community who have read a little
bit about your story. So we're going to get into
why you rejected the pardon, but I want to start
with something that's not been reported. in the
press coverage, which is talk a little bit about
your upbringing and how you feel like how you
were raised and some of your experiences and
influences, how it led you to join the MAGA community.
Well, my parents got divorced when I was pretty
young. And I think maybe that along with my father's
parenting techniques which some he had two forms
of parenting is either he was mad or he was absent
and um everyone on his side of the family that
side of the family um not everyone's an alcoholic
on that side of family but um there was a lot
of heavy drinking and there still is and um by
the time i left high school i was a pretty heavy
drinker um and It only got worse as time went
on and I definitely involved politics with it
too. I was very prone to just going on binges
and going on social media and kind of procrastinating,
not procrastinating, instigating people and was
very, what's the word? Sorry, I'm having a hard
time with this. Controversial, so to speak. Thank
you for sharing that. So what kind of media did
you consume? What were some of the figures or
media that you felt like maybe brought you to?
gravitate to the MAGA community? Because I feel
like a lot of those influences, it definitely
leads people. It can help steer them toward MAGA.
I was mostly on Facebook. After getting out of
the military, I was going, I was in college,
majoring in political science. And while in class,
it was me and another veteran, this veteran I'd
end up. heading down to the Capitol for January
6th with four years later. But I met him in college
and we would, most people in the classrooms were
Bernie Sanders supporter and this one veteran
and I, we were Trump supporters and we would
argue with everyone in class. 28 people in the
class would all say one thing and then Paul and
I would say the other and we'd be the only two
holdouts. I took those politics and this debate
style to social media, and I didn't go on social
media. I thought I was being politically active,
majoring in political science, being in school
for it gave an air of authenticity to what I
was doing, but I never learned anything. I only
went there to argue. I didn't go there to...
find out what is right, but I like to prove people
wrong. And that's all I seem to care about. And
I had 10 years on most of the students that were
in my classes. So it was sometimes easy to pick
apart the arguments that these students would
bring up in support of Bernie Sanders and in
comparative actually just coming up with why
it would be right to support Trump. I never did
that. It was proving you wrong. And somehow that
gave me the feeling that I was right. I think
that I can relate to what you're saying because
the feelings of wanting to be proven that we're
on the right side, it definitely informed my
thinking before I decided to become a MAGA community
member and become a volunteer. What was it, though,
about... the community itself that really appealed
to you. Now, you're a veteran. Yes, I was in
the Navy, and I joined the Army Reserves after.
And I spent a lot of time after college. I worked
as a correctional officer, and then I worked
at the post office, and I kept trying to make
government work. and it but it wasn't working
um because of all these problems i was because
of my drinking um and i didn't want to admit
that though and the more useless i became as
a person you know i got fired from corrections
i i if i didn't get fired from the post office
i would have been i quit um the more useless
i became the more louder i became of a maga supporter
it filled my time with with just noise instead
of action and then going to these rallies in
my mind was action it was um it was patriotism
it was um love of one's country and um you know
it didn't really phase me that i'm driving around
going to right -wing nationalist rallies to me
it was i was going around and spreading the word
and you know it turned turned into more or less
of a routine And by the time January 6th, it
was a routine I was very used to. What I hear
and what you're saying is what I call MAGA to
everyone, which is a community. You found a like
-minded group. You were going to rallies. You
had a shared enemy. And there's something that
I think the public. we'll want to hear from you
because there's this question that comes up a
lot in the public discourse about January 6th,
and we'll get to that in a moment, that part
of your story. But what is it about some of the
veterans who appeared and rioted at January 6th?
Do you think that there is something in the training
or upbringing of a veteran that makes them...
more susceptible to some of the MAGA -wise. I'm
curious about your take as a vet and how that
applies as you see it to other veterans. Well,
at the Trump rallies and on January 6th, there
was this, even before January 6th, just at the
rallies themselves, there was this mob mentality,
especially if, like, say, someone's getting kicked
out of the rally. You know, a protester gets
kicked out of the rally. In unison, everyone
will look together and will band together and
look at this person and embarrass that person
or maybe even physically remove that person without
even questioning the authority. And that's something
a lot of us were trained when we're, you know,
whether former policemen or veterans. There was
just like this instant bond you felt. I distinctly
remember on January 6th with complete strangers.
and that something that is clearly being taken
advantage of by the you know starter of this
movement so let's talk about january 6 because
i want to spend some time on this okay take us
through your thought process after the election
between november and January 6th. Take us into,
in as real time as you can, your world and what
it was like for you in those two months in between.
After Trump lost the election, I was working,
before and after I was working at the post office,
and my friend Paul, who I had... been have gone
to all these rallies with and had all those classes
with back in college would uh talk while i was
delivering mail i had a bluetooth in my my ear
and and uh he would be on the he was unemployed
because he too was having problems after he graduated
he'd gotten fired at least twice and um we we
were enablers we would just um we would complain
to each other after we got fired and blame the
liberals for our getting fired and um one of
the one of the people trump pointed the finger
at after losing the election was the post office
so i'm working at the post office and i have
a bluetooth in my ear and i'm talking to another
lunatic who thinks just as crazy thoughts as
i am and i spent my entire day complaining about
the election complaining about the liberals going
through the mail and if i'd be at someone's house
who had a biden sign in their lawn i'd be like
oh this freaking liberal that and this and that
and he'd be in the bluetooth and we were just
riling each other up and um By the time I quit
the post office, I think it was December 31st.
I don't know. I think I left before that. But
when I go back and look up the exact date, according
to the post office, I left on New Year's Eve.
But by the time Trump had asked people to come
down to protest, between Paul and I, it wasn't
even a question. We knew we were going down.
Now, you say, Jason, about you had these crazy
thoughts. But at the time, it's what you believed,
right? I knew he lost the election. I honestly
didn't care. By the time of the post office,
I was drinking every single day. I was drinking
while working. I was drinking when I woke up
in the morning. I was just kind of surviving
from day to day. at this point i knew i had a
problem and i didn't know i was going to get
past it just like i didn't know how we're going
to get past trump losing the election and i some
you know one one thing about maga is associating
politics and parts of your life where it shouldn't
be associating and my my drinking problem my
problem with work politics shouldn't have been
a factor that i shouldn't be worrying i shouldn't
have been worrying about who's the next president
i shouldn't worry about getting myself sober
and getting a job and But because Trump lost
the election and needed his supporters to come
down to DC, that was something I had to do in
my mind. And I somehow associated that with getting
through to the next step of whether it's getting
sober or getting another job. I'm like, oh, first
I got to go down to this rally and see how that
goes. It gives you a, you know, I was a non -functioning
alcoholic at this point now where I can't even
hold a job. So, you know, social events weren't
normal anymore. So, you know. I'm losing the
words to describe it. The feelings I had at the
time, they were just so empty and despairing
that I guess just showing up was a sense of duty
at that point. I think you're really highlighting
just the pressures to conform and the peer pressures
are real. And I think that for a lot in the public,
I don't ask them to defend your actions or my
actions or rhetoric in the past, but some of
the challenges faced when someone is very deep
in a community is that it is really difficult
to walk away in part because of the community
of it. And that's a very candid admission you're
making, which was, you just said, yeah, I didn't,
I knew that he lost. i knew that he lost also
i didn't go to the ellipse i knew people who
went i would not have gone even if invited what
upset me about january 6 was not that law enforcement
was attacked and there was a there was a riot
at the capitol what upset me about january 6
at the time was i was looking at everyone who
insurrected and i thought They're ruining our
chances of a 2024 comeback. So my concern was
damage control. My concern was political future.
It wasn't, wow, people are getting hurt and possibly
might die today. So that's an admission that
you're making. I appreciate you being honest
about that, that it was that you felt a sense
of duty to the leader and the community to go.
So after, now take us through. after the ellipse
you're there for the speech you hear the president
then what well um we well at first we had confused
where the uh speech was gonna be um and i had
ubered to the white house uh i paid for the uber
my friend paul was with me we'd invited another
friend along his name is matt and he was also
a fired firefighter with a drinking problem so
he had three veterans with drinking problems
who've all been fired within the past few years
heading down to dc wouldn't go wrong but we stayed
at a hotel outside of dc and ubered to the white
house and um there is a apartment complex in
washington dc called the white house and that's
where the uber had brought us and we discovered
this obviously wasn't where we wanted to go so
i changed the uber to 1600 pennsylvania avenue
And then we're heading towards the right White
House when the Uber driver pointed out as we're
passing the Washington Monument, I think you
guys want to go here. And so he pulled over and
let us out. So thanks to the Uber driver, we
even got to the right spot. And we heard Trump
speaking on the other side of the hill of the
Washington Monument. We didn't actually see him
there. We saw the crowds of people walking towards.
the capitol building and we came to the conclusion
that trump is probably over at the capitol building
speaking there so we walked over to the capitol
building and uh my friends had stopped following
following me excuse me um when we had to step
over a barrier um they were smart enough to know
that's probably not a good idea to keep following
the crowd i i kept going um and uh when violence
started erupting and when people started storming
you know into the building my initial reaction
was confusion because you know i'm thinking i'm
going to watch trump speak instead now i'm with
a group of people storming into the capitol building
is it because trump's in there and they're holding
hostage what's happening that was my initial
um thought and i was also confused by the chance
to hang mike pence um i don't have strong feelings
for or against mike pence so when people were
doing that i was a little confused and uh but
then when the capitol building started getting
broken into. It was just basically a mass immaturity
movement on the part of the riot where I was
at. I was not down, like, you know, I see the
videos of what was happening down in the tunnels
with the extreme, you know, violence and cops,
one cop, one police officer being tasered. And
I didn't see that. I just, I saw property destruction.
and people throwing papers around like more or
less like as if our we had just won our our team
had just won a game and we're riding after the
game that was more of the the feeling i i was
experiencing i felt with the people around me
when we first went into the building and it was
euphoric and jubilant and um even after a cop
had come in and yelled at me to leave in my mind
too i was also within the confines of the law
by by doing what a cop told me to do as soon
as he told me to. I'm like, I'm good. The cop
told me to leave, so I left. But even though
I'd already seen violence against police officers
and entered the building, I obviously had already
broken the law at that point. And after I had
left the building, the gentleman who I'd hawked
the book I'd picked up, I'd picked up a book
on my way out of the building, and I'd hawked
it to someone right outside the building. I'd
start talking to someone. he'd offered me 40
bucks for it and i gave he gave me 40 bucks i
gave him the book and he he asked me he said
he said people were getting into the building
he heard and i was like oh people are in there
they're there and he's like he's like you know
people got shot right and i was like no one got
shot it's a party in there and he's like no someone
got shot i saw a woman who got shot in the neck
get brought out of the building and uh it was
like from that moment that's where All that jubilance
and all the excitement and all those immature
feelings I was having, it turned into fear really
quick. And I remember I was looking at the police
a lot differently at that point. They were starting
to barricade us into the building. And I remember
thinking, you know, these police, they can shoot
us right now legally. And I remember being really
afraid. And I had to walk along the building.
to find an opening there was no walking away
from the building where i was because there were
so many people still pouring in and the police
there's police when i'm looking away from the
building there's police to my left starting to
make a wall barricading us in and there was rioters
coming in from the right and i'd walked along
the building until it started to open up and
then i i walked out and i started to run and
i ran for um It felt like eternity. I think it
was a good hour or two I was running. My phone
had died during the ride, so I couldn't get in
contact with the people I'd come down with. And
I ended up running back and then turning around
and heading back to where I'd come from until
I found a T -Mobile. And all the businesses were
shutting down, too. All the businesses were kicking
everyone out and shutting their doors, but T
-Mobile was still open, and they let me plug
my cell phone in. and call my friends, and they
came and got me. Wow. Thank you for the detail
on that. And is it fair to say that after you
were arrested for your role on that day that
you were defiant at first? Oh, absolutely. i
mean i i loved negative attention so much and
you know i really got it there and i i wanted
i wanted to piss everyone off as much as i could
it almost became a mission for me um i put it
i put on facebook at one point my only regret
is we gave the capitol building back and that
actually showed up in the boston globe and um
you know i a lot of my family had stopped talking
to me everyone my father's side of the family
stopped talking to me. And so the negative attention
also comes with the sprinkling of compliments
from the other fringe groups and the fringe people
and the people who support Trump. And so I would
sort of gesture to those people and basically
be a mascot. I was volunteering for free for
Trump at that point. So take us through when
you're doubts started to commence around what
time uh what what year the time period of the
year what triggered it what you were thinking
as you went through what i would consider an
epiphany of eventually leaving maga take us again
as real time as you can into your life at that
moment when you're starting to have these doubts
i i um the government ended up forcing sobriety
on me i um not long after the riot um around
the time i got arrested i did as shortly after
i got arrested i did an interview with catherine
underwood i told her i'm going to run for office
and she wanted to do an interview for that and
i did an interview while drinking and confused
um my congressman and my senators and i said
i'm going to run for congress against the senator
and i went viral um And it came to the attention
of not, you know, it wasn't, I got the public
attention, but I also got the government's attention.
And I had a probation officer. Her name is Corinne
Hess. And she ended up, she violated my probation
that I was under for being out on bail for the
riot. And so then they added a stipulation into
my bail conditions of needing to breathe into
a breathalyzer twice a day. that's when i this
is the first long -term sobriety i ever experienced
since i started drinking and uh it was before
i i let i had to go to prison that you know after
my brain things started to connect and i started
thinking rationally the things trump was saying
didn't seem so rational and i didn't really agree
with them um but i kept that to myself And I
reported to prison where I became more or less
a little Robin Hood folk hero in the prison for
having stormed the Capitol building, not even
with the inmates, with the correctional officer
staff were cheering me on for having stormed
the Capitol building. So I became this mascot
for douchebags that was helping me in prison.
And so I kept that image and I kept my opinion
of my... my my emerging disagreeing greens with
trump i kept that to myself and uh afterwards
after i got a prison where i no longer needed
it um it didn't take long for me to just be completely
disgusted by the things trump was saying and
doing and um my epiphany was when he um he got
indicted and he asked people to come out and
protest for him and i remember My first reaction
in my head to that was, Trump, how can you do
that? If people come out and protest, there might
be another riot. There might be another Ashley
Babbitt. Someone else might get killed. How can
you do this, Trump? I remember thinking to myself,
it's because Trump doesn't know you, for starters.
The fact you think you're even thinking about
his feelings proves you have an unhealthy obsession.
And I'm an idiot for even believing he possibly
cares. And from that moment, that's when I just
slowly but surely... came to understand who I
really was in all this. And here we are, not
long after, I'm now voting for Harris. Yeah,
I think that's an important point because I want
viewers to know that you were not a supporter
of the president this past November. And, you
know, I recognize... that there's the the human
aspect of this i i recognize that maybe some
of your alcoholism made being in mag a little
bit easier and you know and there's but then
as you work to get sober you start to see everything
clearer yes and you know this this patriot hero
title that's being attached to capital riders
It sounds good and it feels a hell of a lot better
than convict or domestic terrorist. And part
of me wanted to just keep saying that, you know,
that way I'm not not accept the reality that
I did commit an act of domestic terrorism. But
that would be lying. And lying is a big trigger.
It's it's. I was lying to myself about my drinking.
It's what kept me drunk. So, I mean, if I'm OK
with lying about my politics, then where does
the line end? What else will I become OK with?
You know, I've already actively participated
in the dismantling of our democracy, what Trump
is doing. And, you know, so for me, if I. did
nothing. I think a lot of rioters at this point
are just like, I'm done with politics. They probably
didn't. I guarantee you the majority of the Capitol
rioters didn't even vote. A lot of them were
traumatized by it and they're just staying away
from politics. But having already actively participated
in this fascist movement to not do anything,
then that means to condone. I mean, I've already
participated. So I felt the need to do more.
And that's why I voted for Harris. I donated
to her campaign. I signed up. to volunteer but
that was i think going to be a hard sell knocking
on people's door and saying hi i'm a capital
rider vote for harris so i did i am on a volunteer
list somewhere here in keene but there was no
i did not actually ever take the time to go knock
on doors well i again i want to reiterate the
point that you didn't support him in november
because i think for for many you know they might
think oh you supported him and then it but it's
too late now but that's not the case for you
that you didn't you supported vice president
harris so why why reject the pardon you know
you you've got a chance to get a queen's you
know i know that it doesn't expunge the record
but it restores all of your rights so why why
turn it away why reject it why shun it it's coming
from the man who started the riot and It's the
man who started the riot saying, this is okay.
What you did is okay. It doesn't get rid of it.
It just says, he says, it's okay. And I disagree.
I do not think it's okay. I don't agree with
his narrative of January 6th. I find his narrative
extremely insulting. I find his narrative of
what happened insulting, not just to the Capitol
police officers that died, but also to the rioters
that have died. Ashley Babbitt was a veteran.
someone who loved her country and uh you know
and i think that's you know her her family has
done a little campaigning for trump and i think
it's part of that you know refusal to accept
reality you know i and i know ashley babbitt's
mom is one of those people who's gone out there
and is politicking this this fake narrative And
I don't blame her. I wouldn't want to say that
my daughter did these things. But by pushing
that lie, I think there's a very good chance.
If you do something, people go to prison for
a reason. If you don't learn your lesson, you
keep acting out the same behavior, there's a
good chance it's going to happen again. And it's
going to be even worse next time. So I think
Ashley Babbitt's family should take that into
consideration. What's worse, that your daughter
and wife and mother died for something stupid
and wrong? Or would you rather try to pretend
she died for something else and then get more
people killed in the process? And that's what's
going to end up happening. Jason, I just want
to say in closing, I really appreciate you sharing
this. I think you have a redemption story. in
more ways than one congratulations also on your
sobriety oh thank you i've known friends i've
had you know i've known people who really struggled
with alcohol and and and it and it's hard it
was hard for them to stay clean and so i want
to credit you for that and offer you some praise
even though i know you're not seeking it And
I want to welcome you to our Leaving MAGA community.
And I want to welcome you to the Midas Touch
Network, Midas Mighty community. I always like
to close our shows with a positive affirmation.
I'm Rich, and I left MAGA. I'm Jason, and I'm
Leaving MAGA. Hey guys, if you like this video,
make sure you leave a comment down below and
subscribe. Also, feel free to visit us at leavingmaga
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