by Three years to the day Donald J. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s election victory, Trump once again said the mob had been acting ” peacefully and patriotically.” .” He called for the release of those imprisoned for his actions that day and criticized the congressional committee that investigated the attack as “fake.”
Speaking before a crowd of several hundred people at two events Saturday in Iowa, Trump, who faces criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, made only passing references to the riots and focused much of his speech on criticizing to the president. Biden’s policies.
But at his second event, Trump, who has repeatedly referred to people serving sentences in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack as “hostages,” called on Biden to release them. More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the attack, 170 have been convicted of crimes at trial and more than 700 have pleaded guilty.
“Release the J6 hostages, Joe,” Trump said in Clinton, Iowa. “Release them, Joe. You can do it very easily, Joe.”
Trump’s speeches on Saturday came a day after Biden strongly condemned the former president as “pro-insurrectionist” and a dangerous threat to democracy. Trump offered only a minimal response to those complaints.
At his first event, in Newton, Trump called Biden’s speech “ridiculous” and argued that the president was too focused on the Jan. 6 attack to divert attention from his record.
“That will be your case,” Trump said later that day. “Because he can’t say anything nice.”
Throughout both speeches, Trump repeatedly invoked the lie at the heart of the riots: that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And, as he has done frequently in recent months, Trump sought to deflect accusations that he and Their policies are undemocratic, pointing the finger at Biden.
“He is a threat to democracy because he is incompetent,” Trump said in Newton, even as he accused Biden of being the mastermind behind the criminal charges against him. There is no evidence that President Biden meddled in any of the four criminal cases against Trump, which span federal and state courts.
“It is corrupt. He is incompetent. He has no idea,” Trump said of Biden. “He Weaponized the Department of Justice and the FBI”
Many who attended Newton and a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday said they supported light punishment for anyone who actually committed a crime on Jan. 6. But they added that the severity of the punishment had been exaggerated and that investigations into the riots were unfounded.
“You commit the crime, you serve the sentence. But just being there is not a crime,” said Bruce Fedders, 67, in Sioux Center, adding: “Jan. 6 — I won’t even use ‘insurrection’.”
Gary Leffler, Trump’s caucus captain and former House candidate, said he had marched to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, although he had not entered the building.
“No one who was there had the feeling that this was an insurrection,” said Leffler, 62, in Newton. “That’s a lot of horse manure.”
