WASHINGTON – In his first appearance before the media since the violence of last Wednesday at the US Capitol, Donald Trump called his pre-riot speech at the ‘Save America’ event, “totally appropriate.
“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 what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews Tuesday morning.
Trump used the word ‘fight’ in that speech 20 times. The immediate fallout after the event, an attack on the US Capitol, left four people dead, including a member of the DC Metropolitan Police Department.
The president repeatedly fed off a crowd during that speech which repeatedly chanted ‘Fight for Trump!’
“Something’s wrong here. Something’s really wrong. Can’t have happened.” And we fight. We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Trump said at the pre-riot speech Wednesday. “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
Since the attacks on the Capitol, nearly 100 people have been arrested for their roles. So far, charges to the attacks include unlawful entry, disorderly conduct, and defacing public property. Just a handful of individuals have been accused of more serious crimes, felony violations of the Riot Act.