Donald Trump has described 6 January 2021 as “day of love” when asked about US Capitol riot during a campaign event just weeks before the presidential election.
The former president said the thousands who travelled to Washington DC that day did so because “they thought the election was a rigged election”.
Trump hosted a rally that day outside the White House before his supporters marched to the US Capitol, culminating in a mob storming the building as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s election win.
Trump has spent years making false claims that he lost the 2020 election owing to mass election fraud. 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.
“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”, apparently referring to his speech outside the White House shortly before the riot.
“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 detailed in a filing from the federal prosecutor investigating him.
Among the claims made by Special Counsel Jack Smith were that Trump planned to declare victory in the 2020 vote no matter the outcome, and that he laid the groundwork for challenging the vote ahead of election day.
Mr Smith also detailed how Trump fell out with Mike Pence, his vice-president who refused to join his boss in attempting to deny Biden his election win as Trump supporters gathered in Washington on 6 January 2021.
During the Univision broadcast, the voter questioned why he should support Trump when even his former Vice-President, Mike Pence, was not backing him this year.
Alluding to Pence’s refusal to comply with Trump’s demands on 6 January, he said: “The vice-president – I disagree with him on what he did. I totally disagreed with him on what he did.”
Trump will not be tried ahead of the 2024 vote. He denies wrongdoing, and says he is immune from prosecution over the events of 2021.
During Wednesday’s event with Univision, Trump also stood by baseless claims that immigrants from Haiti had eaten pets in the town of Springfield, Ohio – claiming he “was just saying what was reported”.
Both campaigns have been making intensive media appearances ahead of the 5 November vote, which pits Trump against the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Harris made a combative first appearance on Fox News – a network that hosts some of her most vocal critics.
