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," minimizing his involvement in efforts to overturn the election and the summoning of thousands of his followers to Washington for what he promised would be a "wild" time.
Trump is facing four federal criminal charges in connection with 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.
When asked about the Capitol attack during the debate, Trump argued that his time in office had been better, saying that on Jan. 6 America "had a great border," "had the lowest taxes ever," "had the lowest regulations ever," and was "respected all over the world."
Right-wing extremists saw Trump's "will be wild" tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, as "a call to arms," and criminal cases brought against rioters and organizers have shown that that tweet set off planning by far-right Trump supporters. But by Trump's telling on Thursday, he played a passive role on Jan. 6, even though 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 go make a speech," Trump said during the debate, before suggesting that he knew that such a large crowd could pose a danger.
"I could see what was happening. Everybody was saying they’re going to be there on Jan. 6, they’re 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, too, and you could feel it. And I said they ought to have some National Guard or whatever."
Trump claimed he offered 10,000 soldiers to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who turned it down. The Jan. 6 Committee found no evidence to support the claim that he had offered Pelosi troops, but did find that he had discussed using 10,000 national guardsmen to protect his supporters.
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Trump cited a video from Jan. 6 recently released by House Republicans that showed Pelosi talking about how they should take "responsibility" and "accountability" for the fact that Capitol Police were not more prepared ahead of the attack, comments that took place just before the head of the Capitol Police was pushed out.
“Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination,” Aaron Bennett, a Pelosi spokesperson, wrote in a social media post earlier this month. “Cherry-picked out-of-context clips don’t change that.”
Trump has repeatedly spoken of pardoning Jan. 6 rioters, and referred to defendants — who used or brandished firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive “Trump” billboard, “Trump” flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device during an attack that injured about 140 police officers — as "hostages," "warriors" and "victims."
"What they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Trump said to President Joe Biden during the debate. "What you have done, how you’ve destroyed the lives of so many people."
Trump also falsely claimed during the debate that many rioters were "ushered in by the police," a lie that many Jan. 6 rioters told to the FBI after their arrest, often before subsequently admitting it was false during a plea agreement hearing or after they were convicted when their claims were disproven at trial.
Biden called Trump “a whiner,” and said he doubted that Trump would accept the results of the 2024 election if he lost.
Charges have been brought against more than 1,400 defendants in connection with the Capitol attack, and prosecutors secured convictions against more than 1,000 defendants. While hundreds of defendants have been sentenced to probation, more than 540 Jan. 6 defendants were sentenced to periods of incarceration ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison for a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy. A clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" during his September 2020 debate with Biden was introduced as evidence in that seditious conspiracy trial.
Earlier in the day, a Jan. 6 rioter nicknamed "Shield Grampy" was sentenced to more than 4.5 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's Jan. 6 case. Another Trump supporter who harassed officers who were attacked on Jan. 6 when they came to federal court to testify in 2022 was recently arrested for his own actions on Jan. 6.
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