Former US president Donald Trump has hit back after the Congressional panel report, released earlier this week, held him responsible for the January 6 Capitol Hill riots. Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, Trump posted a video and said, “The unselect committee [sic] did not produce a single shred of evidence that I in any way intended or wanted violence at our Capitol.”
“The evidence does not exist because the claim is baseless and a monstrous lie,” added Trump.
The Republican leader who is having a tough time receiving support from his party men for the 2024 run said it wasn’t an insurrection but a protest that got out of control.
“The events of Jan. 6 were not an insurrection. They were a protest that got tragically out of control.”
He repeated that his government had urged for the deployment of 10,000 to 20,000 National Guard troops, a claim, categorically denied by the select committee.
Notably, the committee which published the report has called for Trump to never be allowed to hold office again. To substantiate the claims, the report cites at least 200 acts where Trump and his allies attempted to overturn the presidential election.
“That evidence has led to an overriding and straight forward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”
It adds that Trump did not attempt to pacify his supporters charging on Capitol Hill in time. His first tweet, asking the supporters to back down, came an hour after the chaotic events had started. At that point, Trump’s tweet had little to no meaning as the majority had infiltrated the Capitol.
The 800-page report was published after conducting 1,000-plus interviews and examination of a large number of documents, phone records, texts and more.
(With inputs from agencies)
