WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump downplayed his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol during the first presidential debate Thursday, saying some people “asked me to go make a speech,” questioning his involvement in efforts to overturn the election and gathering thousands of his followers was kept to a minimum to Washington for what he promised would be a “wild” time.
Trump faces four federal criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, but the case is currently on hold as the Supreme Court decides whether the former president is protected by presidential immunity. He has pleaded not guilty.
Asked about the Capitol attack during the debate, Trump argued that his time in office had been better. He said that on January 6, America had “a great border,” had “the lowest taxes ever,” had “the lowest regulations ever,” and was “respected around the world.”
Far-right extremists saw Trump’s “will be wild” tweet on December 19, 2020, as “a call to arms” and criminal cases filed against rioters and organizers have shown that that tweet set in motion the plans of far-right Trump supporters. But according to Trump’s statement on Thursday, he played a passive role on January 6, even as he spent the weeks after the election convincing millions of his supporters of the lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.
“They asked me to make a speech,” Trump said during the debate, before suggesting he knew such a large crowd could pose a danger.
“I could see what was happening. Everybody said they were going to be there on January 6th, they were going to be there. And I said, ‘You know what? There’s a lot of people coming.’ You could feel it,” Trump said. “You could feel it, and you could feel it. And I said they should have a National Guard or something.”
Trump claimed he offered the then Speaker of the House of Representatives 10,000 soldiers Nancy PelosiD-Calif., who rejected it. The Jan. 6 committee found no evidence to support the claim that he offered Pelosi troops, but did find that he had discussed deploying 10,000 National Guardsmen to protect his supporters.
Trump cited a January 6 video recently released by House Republicans in which Pelosi spoke about how they needed to take “responsibility” and “accountability” for the Capitol Police not being better prepared for the attack, comments that came just before the Capitol Police chief was pushed out.
“Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination,” Aaron Bennett, a spokesperson for Pelosi, wrote in a social media post earlier this month. “Snippets taken out of context do not change that.”
Trump has repeatedly spoken about pardoning the January 6 rioters, referring to defendants — who used or brandished firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bicycle racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk . axe, an axe, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a huge “Trump” billboard, “Trump” flags, a pitchfork, pieces of wood, crutches and even an explosive device in an attack that injured about 140 police officers – as “ hostages’, ‘warriors’ and ‘victims’.
“What they did to some people who are so innocent, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Trump said President Joe Biden during the debate. ‘What you did, how you destroyed the lives of so many people.’
Trump also falsely claimed during the debate that many rioters were “brought in by police.” This was a lie that many rioters told the FBI after their arrest on January 6. Often, they later admitted it wasn’t true during a plea deal hearing, or after they were convicted when their claims were refuted at trial.
Biden called Trump “a whiner” and said he doubted Trump would accept the outcome of the 2024 election if he lost.
Charges have been filed against more than 1,400 suspects in connection with the attack on the Capitol, and prosecutors have obtained convictions against more than 1,000 suspects. While hundreds of suspects have been sentenced to suspended sentences, more than 540 suspects were sentenced Jan. 6 to prison terms ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in a federal prison for a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy. A clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to “stand by” during his September 2020 debate with Biden was entered as evidence in that incendiary conspiracy trial.
Earlier in the day, a January 6 rioter nicknamed “Shield Grampy” was sentenced to more than 4.5 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s January 6 case. Another Trump supporter who harassed officers who were attacked on January 6 as they came to federal court to testify in 2022 was recently arrested on January 6 for his own actions.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
