Even after nearly 1,000 Capitol rioters have been charged with crimes, Donald Trump hailed them this week as “great patriots” and their prison terms “a disgrace.”
But he also insisted that “virtually nothing happened” during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, so it was apparently no big deal.
The former president was asked on the far-right cable program “Real America’s Voice” on Friday to say a few words to lift the spirits of the “political prisoners” behind bars in the “gulag.”
“I think it’s a disgrace what’s been happening,” Trump responded. “So many of these people are great patriots, and what they’ve gone through. Then you look at antifa and BLM [Black Lives Matter]. You look at what’s gone on there, with what they’ve done in all sorts of places over the last ... two years, where they’ve burned down cities.”
However, no cities have been burned down by Black Lives Matter or antifa activists.
Trump also insisted the insurrection wasn’t “deadly” — “nobody died” on the scene, except for “wonderful” Ashli Babbitt, he added. A police officer fatally shot the Trump supporter as she attempted to climb through a smashed window in the Capitol amid a mob trying to get to lawmakers.
So, Trump noted, “virtually nothing happened” that day.
According to the Justice Department records, 950 defendants involved in the 2021 storming of the Capitol have been charged with crimes ranging from trespass and destruction to theft of Capitol property to assault to carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon to seditious conspiracy. In addition, some 140 police officers were injured defending the building and the lawmakers inside.
Trump hailed the rioters even on the day of the violence, telling them, “we love you, you’re very special,” in a video address as he finally requested that they leave the Capitol. “I know your pain,” he said.
Trump declared last September that he would “seriously” consider “full pardons — with an apology” for Jan. 6 defendants if he again becomes president. He also claimed at the time that he was “financially” supporting some of them and asked for contributions.