Trump doesn't take responsibility for Capitol riot, insists speech was 'totally appropriate'

Facing the prospect of a second impeachment for "incitement of insurrection," President Trump on Tuesday insisted a speech he delivered encouraging supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol and "show strength" was "totally appropriate."

In his first remarks to reporters since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the election results, the president didn't take responsibility and defended the speech he delivered prior to the deadly riot.

"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 claimed, citing nobody in particular.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

He went on to again assert that unnamed people have "analyzed" his speech and that "everybody to the T thought it was totally appropriate," even though he has faced widespread condemnation for the remarks, including from Republicans.

Trump in his speech had urged supporters in Washington to "walk down to the Capitol" where Congress was meeting to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory, and he called on them to "show strength" because "you'll never take back our country with weakness." The subsequent pro-Trump riot at the Capitol left five people dead, and on Monday, House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting an insurrection; the resolution said he "willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol."

Trump, while saying he wants "no violence," on Tuesday dismissed this second impeachment effort as "ridiculous" and said it's "causing tremendous danger to our country." He could become the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice. Brendan Morrow