LEGAL
Trump on Jan. 6 insurrection: 'These were great
people'
The former president described the
participants as loving and patriotic, and said Democrats could be blamed for
any violence.
By DAVID COHEN
07/11/2021
01:05 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/11/trump-jan-6-insurrection-these-were-great-people-499165
Former
President Donald Trump on Sunday widely praised those who attended the Jan. 6
rally that preceded the insurrection at the Capitol, repeatedly using the word
“love” to describe the tone of the event.
Echoing his rhetoric about the 2017 white
supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Trump said, “These were peaceful
people, these were great people.”
Speaking on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria
Bartiromo” on the Fox News Channel, he also said the rally participants were
patriots, that some of them were unjustly arrested and jailed, and that a woman
who was shot and killed by law enforcement during the insurrection was a great
hero.
The remarks reflected recent efforts by Trump
and his supporters to cast themselves as the aggrieved parties from the Jan. 6
riot, which left five people dead and others injured — and, for a brief time,
halted the wheels of democracy as President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over
Trump in the Electoral College was being confirmed by Congress.
Trump’s reference to “great people” was
similar to his remarks after the fatal confrontation in Charlottesville. “You
had some very bad people in that group,” he said in August 2017. “But you also
had people that were very fine people on both sides.”
In his interview with Bartiromo, Trump said
those at the events of Jan. 6 were loving people who wanted to save the nation.
“The crowd was unbelievable and I mentioned
the word ‘love,’ the love in the air, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he
said of his rally on the Ellipse. “That’s why they went to Washington.”
He added: “Too much spirit and faith and love,
there was such love at that rally, you had over a million people,” inflating
the size of his rally crowd.
After Trump’s speech, the Capitol was invaded
by backers of his seeking to disrupt the Electoral College count. On the way
in, they battled with police officers; according to the Department of Justice,
approximately 140 police officers were assaulted. Hundreds of those who entered
the Capitol have been charged with various crimes, including more than 50 who
have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious
bodily injury to an officer.
Trump and Bartiromo both expressed outrage
over the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt within the Capitol, implying
repeatedly that there was a cover-up at work. Babbitt, an Air Force veteran,
was fatally shot as she tried to climb through a broken window during the
insurrection.
“Who is the person that shot an innocent,
wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head?” Trump said.
“There is no repercussion — that were on the other side, it would be the
biggest story in this country. Who shot Ashli Babbitt? People want to know and
why.”
Bartiromo then referred to Babbitt as “a
wonderful woman fatally shot on January 6 as she tried to climb out of a broken
window.” Their remarks echoed those of some of Trump’s backers, including Rep.
Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who has claimed Babbitt was “executed.”
Referring to his remarks to the crowd before
they stormed the Capitol as “a very mild-mannered speech,” Trump also suggested
that the blame for any violence that day could be placed on House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and other Democrats because they didn’t take the potential for violence
seriously.
“They are the ones that were responsible,” he
said.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
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