Submitted to VT by the Washington Post
The Washington Postâs Josh Dawsey reports:
Former President Donald Trump voiced regret Wednesday over not marching to the U.S. Capitol the day his supporters stormed the building, and he defended his long silence during the attack by claiming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others were responsible for ending the deadly violence.
âI thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isnât doing something about it? Why isnât Nancy Pelosi doing something about it? And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge,â Trump said of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in a 45-minute interview with The Washington Post. âI hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, âItâs got to be taken care of,â and I assumed they were taking care of it.â
The 45th president has repeatedly deflected blame for stoking the attack with false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and in the interview, he struck a defiant posture, refusing to say whether he would testify before a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault. Trump said he didnât remember âgetting very manyâ phone calls that day, and he denied removing call logs or using burner phonesâŠ
Trump, speaking Wednesday afternoon at his palatial beachfront club, said he did not regret urging the crowd to come to Washington with a tweet stating that it would âbe wild!â He also stood by his incendiary and false rhetoric about the election at the Ellipse rally before the rioters stormed the Capitol. âI said peaceful and patriotic,â he said, omitting other comments that he made in a speech that day.
In fact, Trump said he deserved more credit for drawing such a large crowd to the Ellipse â and that he pressed to march on the Capitol with his supporters but was stopped by his security detail. âSecret Service said I couldnât go. I would have gone there in a minute,” he said.
The former president praised organizers of the rally, some of whom have now received subpoenas from federal authorities, and repeatedly bragged about the size of the crowd on the Ellipse when questioned about the events of Jan. 6.
âThe crowd was far bigger than I even thought. I believe it was the largest crowd Iâve ever spoken to. I donât know what that means, but you see very few pictures. They donât want to show pictures, the fake news doesnât want to show pictures,â he said. âBut this was a tremendous crowd.â
Keep reading: Washington Post
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