The violence he had provoked unsurprisingly continued after President Trump released this video.[1] In the early evening, after the Capitol had finally been secured and the scope of the devastation was clear, President Trump sent another tweet. But rather than forcefully denounce the violence and express concern for the safety of law enforcement personnel and Members of Congress, he again validated the insurrection, reiterated his falsehoods about the election, and lionized the rioters as patriots: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”[2]
Like his predecessors, President Trump swore an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” But on January 6, after inciting violence against the Congress to block certification of the election results, President Trump failed to honor that oath. And he concluded the day not by apologizing, or by repudiating the insurrectionists, but instead by embracing them and lending the imprimatur of the Presidency to their acts of domestic violence.
Since the events of January 6, President Trump has shown no remorse for his role in provoking an attack on our seat of government. To the contrary, he insisted to reporters days later that his speech prior to the insurrection had been “totally appropriate.”[3] Despite repeated
- ↑ Evan Hill & Arielle Ray, Body Camera Footage Shows Capitol Rioters Trampling Over Woman, N.Y. Times (Jan. 28,2021).
- ↑ Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Jan. 6, 2021, 6:01 PM).
- ↑ Kevin Liptak & Betsy Klein, Defiant Trump Denounces Violence but Takes No Responsibility for Inciting Deadly Riot, CNN (Jan. 12, 2021).
