The former president also referred to the attack on the Capitol, where more than 140 police officers were assaulted and the electoral vote was count temporarily halted, as a "day of love."

Oct. 16, 2024, 4:25 PM PDT
By Dareh Gregorian and Nnamdi Egwuonwu

Donald Trump on Wednesday shrugged off the idea that his conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, should cost him the backing of Republican voters after a former supporter confronted him at a televised town hall and said he would not cast a ballot for the former president because of his actions that day.

In his response at the Univision event, Trump also distanced himself from the attack on the Capitol while minimizing the damage done by a mob of his supporters.

"Nothing done wrong at all," Trump said in a lengthy response after a Republican voter from Florida said he had lost his vote because of his responses to the riot and the Covid pandemic. The voter also questioned why he should support Trump when so many people who held high positions in his administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence, weren't backing him this year.

Trump said only "a very small portion" don't support him. "But because it’s me, somebody doesn’t support they get a little publicity," he said.

"The vice president, I disagree with him on what he did. I totally disagreed with him on what he did," Trump said, apparently referring to Pence's refusal to comply with his demands that he prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election win on Jan. 6.

He then argued that the thousands of supporters who went to Washington for Jan. 6 were not there because of him, even though he tweeted on Dec. 19, 2020: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.”

"They didn't come because of me," Trump said Wednesday. "They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election, and that's why they came."

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In 2020, and in the years since then, Trump has falsely claimed that the election was stolen. Many of those charged in the Jan. 6 riot have cited his election lies.

On Wednesday, Trump described how some of the people who went to hear him speak outside the White House on Jan. 6 then "went down to the Capitol." Trump did not mention that he had asked them to do so and that he had indicated he would join them.

"We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong," he told the crowd on Jan. 6. "We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated."

He added, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

Trump, as he has done before, leaned into his reference to the latter remark at the town hall.

"I said 'peacefully and patriotically.' Nothing done wrong at all," he said at the taped town hall, which is set to air at 10 p.m. ET.

His attorneys have also highlighted the "peacefully and patriotically" line from his fiery speech in federal court filings in Washington, where he is defending himself against charges that he tried to illegally overturn the election results, including by provoking the assault on the Capitol.

Prosecutors have taken a different view.

The "defendant willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding by summoning them to Washington, D.C., and then directing them to march to the Capitol to pressure the Vice President and legislators to reject the legitimate certificates and instead rely on the fraudulent electoral certificates,” special counsel Jack Smith’s team countered in a filing Wednesday.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in Washington and in another election interference case in Georgia.

At the town hall, Trump also called Jan. 6, when rioters who delayed the electoral vote count for hours injured over 140 police officers, as "a day of love."

"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 said.

Testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee alleged Trump was aware that many in the crowd were armed with an array of weapons, including guns, before the march to the Capitol.

Among rioters who were proven to have carried firearms are Christopher Alberts, who was sentenced to seven years in prison; Mark Mazza, who carried two guns and was sentenced to five years in federal prison; and Guy Reffitt, who was sentenced to seven years behind bars. Another defendant awaiting trial fired his weapon into the air twice at the start of the assault, according to prosecutors.

In an interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait on Tuesday, Trump said the number of people who went to the Capitol was "very, very small," putting the total number at 500 to 700. "Not one of those people had a gun," he said.

He also described the scene at his speech that day as "love and peace, and some people went to the Capitol, and a lot of strange things happened there."

More than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol, according to the Justice Department. About 1,100 have been convicted, with sentences ranging from a few days of incarceration to 22 years in federal prison.

Trump has referred to the Jan. 6 rioters as “political prisoners,” “hostages,” and “unbelievable patriots” and said he would pardon at least “a large portion” of them as one of his first acts in office if he is elected in November.