Former US President and Republican challenger in the 2024 Presidential elections, Donald Trump, has refused to take responsibility for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. He claimed he had offered “10,000 soldiers or National Guard” before his speech that day, but his offer was declined.
During the Presidential debate on Thursday night, hosted by CNN, Trump initially tried to deflect questions about his actions and inactions on January 6, 2021. Instead, he criticized President Joe Biden, pointing to other issues.
In 2021, a group of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election results from several states that Trump alleged were fraudulent. Since then, US authorities have arrested more than 725 individuals across nearly all 50 states for criminal offenses related to the riot.
Meanwhile, Biden pointed out that Trump had urged people to go to Capitol Hill and had spent three hours “watching, being begged to do something, to call for a stop, to end it,” by his vice president and several other Republican colleagues. Instead, Trump praised the rioters as “outstanding American patriots,” CNN reported.
Trump also claimed during the debate that Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House at the time of the disturbance, refused his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops. However, this claim was quickly refuted by Pelosi.
“Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed repeatedly that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination on January 6th. The Speaker of the House is not responsible for the security of the Capitol Complex on January 6th or any other day. Cherry-picked, out-of-context clips and the unhinged ravings of the instigator of the insurrection do not change that fact,” Pelosi’s spokesperson, Ian Krager, stated, according to CNN.
Krager criticized Trump and his supporters for “still trying to whitewash the deadly insurrection,” calling it “pathetic.” He added, “The American people saw for themselves the dangers to democracy on January 6th and can see right through Republicans’ revisionist history,” as per CNN.
President Joe Biden launched his re-election campaign in April 2023, describing the contest between him and Trump as a “stark choice” for voters between the continuation of democracy in America and its potential “destruction” under Trump. Trump, on the other hand, launched his bid for the 2024 Presidential election in November 2022.
Biden, the oldest president ever to hold office, would be 86 at the end of a second term. Polls indicate that voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than his opponent’s. However, if Trump wins, he would surpass Biden’s record as the oldest president before the end of his term.