Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former president who lost re-election by over seven million votes and 74 Electoral College votes, sat down with The Washington Post for an interview given Wednesday, one day after his daughter Ivanka Trump testified – without taking the Fifth once – for eight hours before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
Trump, who that day was still the President of the United States, laid blame at the feet of other people.
He falsely claims Speaker Nancy Pelosi was responsible for ending the attack many say he incited that led to the deaths of at least five people and another four Capitol Police officers by suicide within months, and 138 police injuries.
“I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isn’t she doing something about it? Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it?” Trump told The Post. “And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge,” Trump said, which is false. “I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, ‘It’s got to be taken care of,’ and I assumed they were taking care of it.”
Multiple reports state many of Trump’s allies, administration officials, and even First Daughter and senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump begged him to call off the attack.
The Post notes that the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, “does not have total control over the Capitol Police, as Trump alleged, but shares control of the Capitol with the Senate majority leader. Most decisions on securing the Capitol are made by a police board. He also blamed the D.C. mayor, whose advisers furiously tried to reach Trump’s team that day.”
Political analyst and advisor Eric Garland characterized Trump’s false claims: “Trump blames Pelosi for not stopping the Mob he whipped up to hang her.”
Former Republican lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gregg Nunziata, summed up Trump blaming Pelosi by saying: “Always someone else’s fault.”