Donald Trump has described the US Capitol riot of 6 January 2021 as a “day of love” during a campaign event just weeks before the presidential election.
The former president claimed the thousands who travelled to Washington DC that day did so because “they thought the election was a rigged election”.
On 6 January, a mob breached the US Capitol building in an effort to deny the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, forcing lawmakers to flee. Several deaths, including that of a police officer, have been attributed to the events that day.
Trump has spent years making false claims that the vote was rigged. The event continues to divide America.
During his “town hall” event in Miami, Florida, Trump was challenged to win back the vote of a man who said he had been disturbed by what happened after the Republican lost the 2020 vote.
“Nothing done wrong at all,” Trump said in a lengthy response.
“There were no guns down there. We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns. And when I say we, these are people that walked down — this was a tiny percentage of the overall which nobody sees and nobody, nobody shows. But that was a day of love.”
He recalled addressing a group of “hundreds of thousands” during a speech elsewhere in Washington DC.
“They didn’t come because of me,” he went on. “They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election, and that’s why they came.”
Trump has been accused of criminal efforts to overturn his defeat, which were recently described in detail in a filing from the federal prosecutor investigating him.
Credit: bbc.com
