Former President Donald Trump says he wanted to take part in the Jan. 6 march on the Capitol but insists he bears no responsibility for the violent attack by legions of his supporters.
In a new sit-down interview with The Washington Post, the twice-impeached president claimed he was prevented by his security detail from joining the march that ended with the storming of the Capitol.
“I would have gone there in a minute,” Trump said.
He also said he was upset to see the violence his law-breaking supporters unleashed on police in a failed effort to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election win.
“I hated seeing it. And I said, ‘It’s got to be taken care of,’” Trump said in the interview at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Trump also blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser for not doing enough to end the attack.
“I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking, ‘Why isn’t she doing something about it? Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it?’” Trump said. “And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge.”
Trump’s claim that Pelosi or Bowser had responsibility for security is false. A Capitol Police board is in charge of protection for the Capitol and requested help from the National Guard on Jan. 6.
As the rioting continued, Trump issued a video filled with mixed messages. He urged his supporters to go home in peace — but repeated false claims that the election was stolen.
“We had an election that was stolen from us ... but you have to go home now, we have to have peace. we have to have law and order,” Trump said in a recorded video from the White House. “This was a fraudulent election but we can’t play into the hands of these people.”
The ex-president said he doesn’t know why his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner chose to testify to the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.
He said the pair refused his requests to invoke some kind of “privilege” to stonewall the probe.
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