Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government by Rob Crilly, White House Correspondent
President Trump defended his role in the run-up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, saying his remarks to supporters were “totally appropriate.”
During his speech, he urged the large crowd in Washington to walk to the Capitol in an effort to encourage Congress to reject election results.
Trump faces fresh impeachment proceedings and warnings of legal jeopardy for his alleged role in inciting rioters.
But on Tuesday, en route to Texas, he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that he did nothing wrong.
“If you read my speech, and many people have done it and I’ve seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television, it’s been analyzed and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said, before comparing the violence with George Floyd protests during the summer.
In his speech last Wednesday, he repeated falsehoods about a stolen election and told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and -women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
On Tuesday morning, he left the White House for the first time since his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Aides have painted a picture of an embattled president fuming in private at new efforts to force him from power.
He emerged from the White House residence to cheers from staff who assembled on the South Lawn to watch the departure of his helicopter, Marine One, as he traveled to Texas and a chance to tout work on the border wall.
He spoke briefly to reporters there to say the barrier was having an effect.
“We’re stopping in large numbers the drugs coming into the country for many, many years and decades,” he said. “We’re stopping a lot of illegal immigration.”
He denounced Democrats’ efforts to impeach him as the “continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics” and accused opponents of stoking divisions.
“I think it’s causing tremendous anger,” he said.
With only eight days left in Trump’s term, Democrats have only a slim chance of removing him from office.
Yet, the result is a White House under siege. Several leading Republicans have called on the president to resign, and on Tuesday, the House is expected to vote on a resolution demanding that Vice President Mike Pence deploy the 25th Amendment to remove Trump.
Aides are planning a series of events to underline his achievements in office.
