President Donald Trump reacted to questions Tuesday concerning violence at the U.S. Capitol last week, blasted Big Tech’s mass censorship as a “catastrophic mistake,” and repeatedly called for the end to violence (video below).
“I think that Big Tech is doing a horrible thing for our county and to our country, and I believe it’s going to be a catastrophic mistake for them,” Trump said.
“They’re dividing and divisive and they’re showing something I’ve been predicting for a long time,” he continued. “I’ve been predicting it for a long time and people didn’t act on it. But I think Big Tech has made a terrible mistake, and very, very bad for our country. And that’s leading others to do the same thing. And it causes a lot of problems and a lot of danger.”
“Big mistake — they shouldn’t be doing it. There’s always a countermove when they do that,” the president warned. “I’ve never seen such anger as I see right now, and that’s a terrible thing — a terrible thing. And you have to always avoid violence.”
“And we have tremendous support — we have support probably like no one has ever seen before,” Trump insisted, again adding, “Always have to avoid violence.”
Asked about his “role in violence at the Capitol,” Trump responded:
If you read my speech … people thought that what I said was totally appropriate. And if you look at what other people have said, politicians, at a high level, about the riots during the summer — the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle, and various other places — that was a real problem.
Trump added that media figures have “analyzed” and “inspected” his speech and “thought it was totally appropriate.”
House Democrats released Monday a single article of impeachment they will file against the president for allegedly inciting what they claimed was an “insurrection” at the Capitol, The Daily Wire reported.
Trump “willfully made statements that encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — imminent lawless action at the Capitol,” the article of impeachment alleges. “Incited by President Trump, a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol, injured law enforcement personnel, interfered with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the election results, and engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts.”
At the “Save America Rally” that preceded the riot at the Capitol, Trump told supporters to “peacefully” march to the Capitol and “cheer” on the members of Congress who were objecting to the certification of the Electoral College vote.
“… We’re going to walk down to the Capitol — and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them,” Trump told supporters. “Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
“We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated. Lawfully slated,” the president claimed.
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump added. “Today, we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections.”
Opening his speech, the president claimed the election was “stolen” from his supporters and emphasized that “we will never concede”:
All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media. That is what they have done and what they are doing. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.
Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about.
And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.
Trump’s speech in its entirety has been transcribed by ABC News and can accessed here.
WATCH:
Q: "What is your role in what happened at the Capitol? What is your personal responsibility?"
President Trump: "If you read my speech…people thought that what I said was totally appropriate." pic.twitter.com/90Pdt8xFSz
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 12, 2021
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