WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. president Donald Trump persisted in saying during the presidential debate that he won the 2020 election and took no responsibility for any of the mayhem that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the building to block the peaceful transfer of power.
The comments Tuesday night underscored the Republican's refusal, even four years later, to accept the reality of his defeat and his unwillingness to admit the extent to which his falsehoods about his election loss emboldened the mob that rushed the Capitol, resulting in violent clashes with law enforcement. Trump's grievances about that election are central to his 2024 campaign against Democrat Kamala Harris, as he professes allegiance to the rioters.
In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232, and there was no widespread fraud, as election officials across the country, including Trump鈥檚 then-attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, crucial to Biden鈥檚 victory, vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies were dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.
An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by Trump found fewer than 475. Biden took Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and their 79 electoral votes by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The disputed ballots represent just 0.15 per cent of his victory margin in those states.
In the ABC debate, Trump was asked twice if he regretted anything he did on Jan. 6, when he told his supporters to march to the Capitol and exhorted them to 鈥渇ight like hell.鈥� On the Philadelphia stage, Trump first responded by complaining that the questioner had failed to note that he had encouraged the crowd to behave 鈥減eacefully and patriotically.鈥� Trump also noted that one of his backers, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot inside the building by a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
Trump suggested that protesters who committed crimes during the 2020 racial injustice protests were not prosecuted. But an AP review in 2021 of documents in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the protests sparked by George Floyd鈥檚 death found that more than 120 defendants across U.S. pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial of federal crimes including rioting, arson and conspiracy.
When the question about his actions on Jan. 6 arose again, Trump replied: 鈥淚 had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech. I showed up for a speech.鈥�
But he ignored other incendiary language he used throughout the speech, during which he urged the crowd to march to the Capitol, where Congress was meeting to certify Biden鈥檚 victory. Trump told the crowd: 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 fight like hell, you鈥檙e not going to have a country anymore.鈥� That鈥檚 after his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, declared: 鈥淟et鈥檚 have trial by combat.鈥�
Trump didn鈥檛 appeal for the rioters to leave the Capitol until more than three hours after the assault began. He then released a video telling the rioters it was time to 鈥済o home,鈥� but added: 鈥淲e love you. You鈥檙e very special people.鈥�
He also repeated an oft-stated false claim that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., 鈥渞ejected鈥� his offer to send 鈥�10,000 National Guard or soldiers鈥� to the Capitol. Pelosi does not direct the National Guard. As the Capitol came under attack, she and then-Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. called for military assistance, including from the National Guard.
Harris pledged to 鈥渢urn the page鈥� from Jan. 6, when she was in the Capitol as democracy came under attack.
鈥淪o for everyone watching, who remembers what January 6th was, I say, 'We don鈥檛 have to go back. Let鈥檚 not go back. We鈥檙e not going back. It鈥檚 time to turn the page.鈥�
Though Trump had seemed to acknowledge in a recent podcast interview that he had indeed 鈥渓ost by a whisker," he insisted Tuesday night that that was a sarcastic remark and resumed his boasts about the election.
鈥淚鈥檒l show you Georgia, and I鈥檒l show you Wisconsin, and I鈥檒l show you Pennsylvania,鈥� he said in rattling off states where he claimed, falsely, that he had won. 鈥淲e have so many facts and statistics.鈥�
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Melissa Goldin contributed to this report.
