Former president Donald Trump gushed in newly released audio from March that the protesters assembled to support him at the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 were part of a “loving crowd.”
That crowd, of course, splintered. Some of the attendees of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally rioted and violently breached the Capitol in an effort to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s. The riots left five dead.
The audio of Trump praising the crowd comes courtesy of the Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker, who recorded their chats with the former president for their book, “I Alone Can Fix It.” In the audio, Trump said the rioters were “ushered in” by Capitol police.
“Personally, what I wanted is what they wanted. They showed up just to show support because I happen to believe the election was rigged at a level like nothing has ever been rigged before,” Trump said.
“It was a loving crowd, too, by the way. There was a lot of love,” he said, adding that other people have told him how loving it was. He concluded it was “too bad” that the crowd “did that,” referring to the deadly riot.
A bi-partisan Congressional select committee has been appointed to investigate the riot.