Jason Whitlock says January 6 riots inspired him to vote for the first time as he backs Donald Trump to win

Jason Whitlock has voted early, and for the first time in his life, explaining to his YouTube followers that January 6 inspired him support Donald Trump.

The controversial conservative sports analyst said he considered voting for Trump in 2016 but ultimately never casted a vote. He also didn't vote in 2020, but things changed after he saw the January 6 riots unfold, with thousands of protestors storming the Capitol building.

After sharing video of his trip to his polling station in downtown Nashville, Whitlock said: 'In 2016, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement caught my imagination. Trump is the first person that ran for President where I was like "he's not a politician and he's got so much money, he's more difficult to control".

'But I still didn't vote because I liked my brand - non-voting, objective journalist. 2020, certainly a Trump supporter, not a fan of Biden, I liked my brand.

'What changed? January 6, 2021. January 6 changed me on that day. I was like "holy cow, look at corporate media call these people insurrectionists". I'd never heard the word before January 6.

'I started saying "they are going to bury these people under a jail, they are going to treat them like terrorists. They are going to all be thrown in prison and it's just unfair, these people are unarmed.

'They went to the Capitol to express their frustration. A frustration that I share and if I wasn't a coward, I'd have been there with them.

'January 6 changed me and helped me understand that man, there are real consequences to this election process and Trump not being in office.

'I started to think about all these people that are in prison, being treated unfairly for January 6 and all the people that are free that looted cities and created an environment where violent towards police, defund the police... these people aren't in prison.

'And so January 6 made me think I've got to do something to help the political prisoners. The only thing I could think to do was vote for Donald Trump because he would pardon them.'

According to the United States Department of Justice, approximately 467 people have been jailed for participating in the rioting at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. Over 1,200 people have been charged for federal crimes in relation to the riots.

Figures convicted have ranged from members of far-right extremist groups to  an Olympic gold medalist in Klete Keller.