Trump Regrets Not Marching on Jan 6th, Blames Pelosi for Not Ending Capitol Riot in Mar a Lago Comments

Former President Donald Trump defiantly stood by his conduct on January 6th while blaming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, once again, for not putting a stop to his rioting supporters.

The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey held a 45-minute interview with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, wherein the ex-president offered no contrition for calling his supporters to Washington after pushing his false claims against his 2020 election loss. Trump used the interview to brag about his January 6th crowd size, glossed over his incendiary rhetoric that day, and expressed regret that he didn’t march with his supporters to the U.S. Capitol on the day they violently stormed the building.

From the report:

In fact, Trump said he deserved more credit for drawing such a large crowd to the Ellipse — and that he pressed to march on the Capitol with his supporters but was stopped by his security detail. “Secret Service said I couldn’t 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.

“The crowd was far bigger than I even thought. I believe it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. I don’t know what that means, but you see very few pictures. They don’t want to show pictures, the fake news doesn’t want to show pictures,” he said. “But this was a tremendous crowd.”

Trump also used the interview to blame Pelosi for the situation that unfolded on the Capitol, even though she was targeted by the mob and, in fact, was not in charge of the Capitol Police that day. He also assigned some of the blame to Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, even though the Post noted that her team “furiously tried to reach Trump’s team that day.”

“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? And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge,” said Trump. “I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, ‘It’s got to be taken care of,’ and I assumed they were taking care of it.”

The interview continued with Trump denying he had the White House’s call logs destroyed despite questions about the 8-hour gap in the records from January 6th. As for the January 6th Committee, Trump called it a “shame and harassment” that they interviewed his daughter Ivanka Trump this week, which comes after the committee’s interview with Ivanka’s husband and Trump’s other former adviser, Jared Kushner.