WASHINGTON — The day after thousands of Donald Trump's supporters who believed his lies about the 2020 election laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, with many assaulting police officers, the then-president tried to distance himself from the mob, saying "intruders" had "infiltrated the Capitol" during the "heinous attack" and "defiled the seat of American democracy."
Those who engaged in "acts of violence and destruction," Trump said on Jan. 7, 2021, "do not represent our country," and those who broke the law, he said, "will pay."
Within hours of Trump’s comments, FBI special agents would make their first Capitol siege arrest, kicking off what would become the largest investigation in the FBI’s history, all overseen initially by Trump’s own Justice Department appointees. In the 45 months since the attack, more than 1,500 people have been charged, with prosecutors securing convictions against more than 1,100 defendants and more than 600 prison sentences ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison, for a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Now, as the Republican nominee for president in 2024, Trump, the self-proclaimed “law-and-order” candidate, has softened his stance on the Capitol attack, in which some rioters carried firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, bear spray and even explosive devices as hundreds of them assaulted police officers.
The latest example came Wednesday, at a forum held by Univision, where Trump called Jan. 6 "a day of love."
“They almost ‘loved’ me to death," former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, whom Trump supporters repeatedly assaulted on Jan. 6, 2021, told NBC News on Thursday. "I guess a lot of people were hugging me and kissing me. I should be thankful, I guess, according to him, because I lost my career, because I lost my health, I lost my financial stability, my mental health paid a price. And that's a result of that 'day of love,' as he continues to say nothing happened.
"Are you serious? A day of love? A day of love when more than 140 officers were injured, people lost their career, people lost their lives?" Gonell added. "Democracy was in shambles because of what he did, because he refused to concede."
Gonell and other officers who defended the Capitol have listened as Trump's rhetoric about the attack has shifted. Trump has called into the nightly livestreamed vigil held in support of Jan. 6 defendants outside the Washington jail at least once. He has hosted fundraisers for Jan. 6 defendants at his clubs and made a donation himself. And he has promised to pardon an undefined number of criminals convicted in relation to Jan. 6. He has even said he would "absolutely" consider pardoning every single rioter, which would include rioters who were seen on video assaulting officers with a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive “Trump” billboard, “Trump” flags, pieces of lumber, crutches, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture and pepper spray.
Even so, Trump's comments at the Univision forum Wednesday stood out. In one striking comment — a line that could well find a home in a future court filing by special counsel Jack Smith in Trump's federal election interference case — he used the first-person pronoun "we" in discussing the crowd, aligning himself with the mob.
"There were no guns down there," Trump said (falsely, as numerous supporters have been convicted and are serving prison sentences because they were carrying guns that day). "We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns. And when I say we, these are people that walked down — this was a tiny percentage of the overall, which nobody sees and nobody, nobody shows."
Trump didn't say whom he meant by "the others." A Trump campaign spokesperson disputed that his rhetoric about Jan. 6 has evolved.
“President Trump has been totally consistent — a record number of patriots showed up to witness his historic speech at the Ellipse and it was all love,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Gonell said, “He’s no longer disavowing the violence of that day; he’s embracing it.” Gonell noted that Trump went from distancing himself from the mob to referring to its members just this year as "victims," "hostages," "patriots" and "warriors."
There were hints that Trump’s public comments in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6 didn't align with his true feelings. First, in a video posted that day, he described rioters as “very special.” And in outtakes from a videotaped speech he released on Jan. 7, which were uncovered by the House Jan. 6 committee, Trump hesitated to back criminal consequences for rioters.
“To those who broke the law, you will pay. You do not represent our movement, you do not represent our country, and if you broke the law ...” he said, before pausing. “I can’t say that. I’m not — I already said, ‘You will pay.’”
Trump's defense of the Jan. 6 rioters hasn't happened in a vacuum. Republicans in Congress have promoted conspiracy theories, suggesting that bad actors were undercover federal operatives trying to entrap Trump supporters and that the mob's members were just tourists. Trump's running mate, Yale-educated Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has repeatedly avoided explicitly saying Trump lost the 2020 election.
In federal court, politicians’ indulgence of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and Jan. 6 has frustrated federal judges, who see the broader impact the attack had on American democracy.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in sentencing a rioter who drove a stun gun into an officer's neck, warned that the “shadow of tyranny” seen on Jan. 6 hasn't gone away as election lies continued to be repeated and spread. “It seems to work because — with only a few exceptions — others in the public eye are not willing to risk their own power or their popularity by calling it out,” she said.
Early this year, senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth — who was appointed to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan — said he was “shocked” at how prominent political figures talked about Jan. 6 criminals, calling the politicians’ remarks “preposterous” and warning that such rhetoric “could presage further danger to our country.”
