On Fifth Anniversary Of His Coup Attempt, Trump Repeats His Lie That He Didn’t Do It

The president reminded House Republicans he said "peacefully and patriotically" in his pre-coup rally and blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the violence.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, on the fifth anniversary of his failed coup attempt to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, yet again falsely claimed he had nothing to do with the violence that left 140 police officers injured and five dead.

“In my speech — ‘peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol, peacefully and patriotically.’ Do you know that the unselect committee didn’t report it, that I said those words?” he said Tuesday, referring to the House Jan. 6 committee that detailed Trump’s attempts to remain in office despite having lost the election by 7 million votes. “Do you know that the news never reported the words, ‘walk or march peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol.’ You know, they never reported it.”

He then blamed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the violence that day for not wanting the 10,000 troops Trump says he wanted deployed — troops that Trump wanted to protect his supporters from counter-protesters.

“They never reported that Nancy Pelosi was offered 10,000 soldiers, National Guard soldiers, whatever you want. ‘No, I don’t want them,’” he said.

In fact, the “peacefully and patriotically” language was in the prepared remarks that he read off the teleprompter early that afternoon. In that speech, Trump also told his mob that they had to “fight like hell” that day.