ALAMO, Texas (AP) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday took no responsibility for fomenting a violent uprising at the U.S. Capitol last week, despite his comments encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol and praise them while still they were carrying out the assault.
“People thought what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.
He made the remarks during his first public appearance since the siege of the Capitol, which occurred when lawmakers were counting the votes of the Electoral College claiming the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Trump arrived in Texas on Tuesday to trumpet his campaign against illegal immigration in an attempt to burn his legacy with eight days to go, as congressional lawmakers appeared to dismiss him this week for the second time.
In Alamo, Texas, a city in the Rio Grande Valley, near the U.S.-Mexico border, where the 450-mile border line his administration is building is located, Trump rejected Democrats asking his cabinet to declare him unfit for office and dismiss him from power with the 25th Amendment.
“The 25th Amendment has zero risk for me, but it will again pursue Joe Biden and the Biden administration,” Trump said. “As the saying goes, be careful what you want.”
The fury in Congress halls caused lawmakers on both sides and Trump’s own vice president to hide, while crowds demanded the lynching of Mike Pence for his role in overseeing the vote count. The scene also undermined the republic’s hallmark: the peaceful transition of power. At least five people were killed, including a Capitol police officer.
“The time has come for peace and calm,” Trump said Tuesday, less than a week after inciting the crowd that descended on the Capitol. He added, “Respect for law enforcement is the foundation of the MAGA agenda,” referring to the slogan of his campaign, “Make America Big Again.”
In the days leading up to the Jan. 6 certification vote, Trump encouraged his supporters to come down to Washington, DC, promising a “savage” rally in support of his unfounded election fraud claims, despite the findings of the his own government. Speaking for more than an hour in front of a crowd at the Ellipse, Trump encouraged supporters to “fight like hell” and suggested that Republican lawmakers would need “more courage not to step up.” annul the will of the voters to grant him another term. He also suggested that he join them in marching to the Capitol.
By the time Trump was finished, thousands of his supporters were already heading to the Capitol, where lawmakers had gathered to count the electoral votes. As riot police were still in the building and lawmakers protected in safe places, Trump, at the urging of helpers who were shocked by the violence, posted a video apparently excusing the facts, saying of the riot police: “We love you. You are very special. Go home.”
In statements Tuesday, Trump said the “real problem” was not his rhetoric, but the rhetoric Democrats used to describe the protests and violence of black life in Seattle and Portland this summer.
“Everyone thought it was totally appropriate,” Trump said of his own comments.
Trump was furious at the push from lawmakers for his second impeachment this week and said, “It’s causing tremendous anger and division and much greater pain than most people will ever understand, something which is very dangerous for the United States, especially at this tender time. ”
Alamo is named after the San Antonio mission where a small group of Texan independence fighters defended Mexican forces during a 13-day siege. Most died, but the mission became a symbol of resistance for the Texans, who eventually defeated the Mexican army.
Trump’s visit there, no doubt a symbol of the president’s challenge, comes as he spends the last days of his presidency isolated, harmed, and contemplating the prospect of a second removal.
While Trump was traveling, Pence assured the nation’s governors that the outgoing administration is working “diligently” with the team of President-elect Joe Biden. He thanked the rulers for their leadership in the coronavirus and promised them a “perfect transition.”
Trump aides have been urging the president to spend his remaining days in office highlighting what they consider the key achievements of his presidency: a massive tax cut, his efforts to roll back federal regulations, and the transformation of federal courts with the appointment of Conservative judges. But Trump has been consumed by baseless accusations of fraud and electoral conspiracies.
In Texas, he uttered words that highlighted his administration’s efforts to curb illegal immigration and the advances made in its 2016 campaign promise: build a “big, beautiful wall” across the southern border: an imposing concrete and reinforced steel structure. But over time, Trump demanded modifications that have been largely rejected: he wanted it painted black to burn the hands of those who touched it; he wanted it adorned with deadly spikes; he even wanted to surround it with a moat full of alligators. Although he promised to finance Mexico, American taxpayers ended up supporting the bill.
In the end, his administration has overseen the construction of approximately 450 miles of border walls, which will likely reach 475 miles on the day of the inauguration. The vast majority of this wall replaces smaller barriers that already existed, although the new wall is considerably more difficult to avoid.
For the past four years, Trump and his administration have taken extreme (and often illegal) steps to try to curb illegal and legal immigration. His efforts were aided in his final year by the coronavirus pandemic, which slowed international travel. But the number of people who stopped trying to cross the southern border illegally has been recovering in recent months. December figures show about 74,000 encounters on the southwestern border, 3% more than in November and 81% more than the previous year.
A few dozen Trump supporters gathered hours before his visit to the Rio Grande Valley, near Harlingen, Texas Airport, where he planned to land. They planned to organize a caravan of vehicles flying flags in support of the president and far-right causes such as QAnon’s conspiracy theory.
Trump warned that the reversal of his policies by Biden would provoke a “wave of illegal immigration.” He added: “Ending these policies is consciously putting the United States in very serious danger.”
Biden has said he would stop building the border wall and taking executive action when possible to reverse some of Trump’s restrictions on legal immigration and asylum seekers. But Biden and his aides have acknowledged the possibility of a new border crisis if they act too quickly and Biden said it could be six months before his administration secures funding and puts in place the necessary infrastructure to ease restrictions. of the Trump era. .
Beyond promoting the wall, Trump quickly enumerated his massive border changes with the goal of discouraging asylum. He cited his “Rest in Mexico” policy, according to which more than 65,000 asylum seekers have been forced to wait in Mexico for hearings in the U.S. immigration court since January 2019 and left establish agreements with Central American countries to offer asylum to asylum seekers. protection in the United States.
He credited his wall for a fall in illegal border crossings from a maximum of 13 years in 2019, but the Government Accountability Office has found that the administration has no measures to correlate the falls in illegal crossings with the construction of walls.
Trump falsely said he inherited “open borders” from his predecessor, Barack Obama. He leaves office with nearly the same number of border patrol officers as when he began, despite a commitment to add 5,000, and the monthly number of immigrants stationed at the border exceeds totals for much of Obama’s tenure. .
___ Writers of the Associated Press, Nomaan Merchant, in Harlingen, Texas; Ben Fox and Alexandra Jaffe in Washington; Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia; and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.