President Trump's administration has created a page on the White House website about the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, five years ago today.
The President continues to claim that the election of 2020 was stolen. He talks about it constantly.
The new web page, published today, says this about former Vice President Mike Pence, in a timeline of the events of January 6th:
Vice President Mike Pence, who had the opportunity to return disputed electoral slates to state legislatures for review and decertification under the United States Constitution, chooses not to exercise that power in an act of cowardice and sabotage [bold type added]. Instead, Pence presides over the certification of contested electors, undermining President Trump's efforts to address documented fraud and ending any chance to correct the election steal.
The web page also says this:
As events unfold, President Trump repeatedly calls for peace, tweeting support for law enforcement and releasing a video telling supporters "go home in peace" while reiterating love for them and election concerns. He consistently promotes non-violence despite the attack on attendees and emotions running high.
Trump, of course, released the video, referred to above, hours after the assault on the Capitol began. During the attack, he had ignored pleas from Congressional Republicans, and others, to step in and act. He watched the rebellion on television, apparently enjoying what he saw. Notably, he never tried to get in touch with his Vice President, who was at the Capitol, and whose life was threatened by rioters ("Hang Mike Pence!").
I wrote this, in a 2024 post:
In February of 2021, Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, of Washington, recounted an angry phone call on January 6th between Mr. Trump and then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy; Mr. McCarthy, news reports at the time indicated, later shared details of the phone call with certain members of the House Republican caucus.
I referred to the following 2021 news story:
“When McCarthy finally reached the president on Jan. 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was Antifa that had breached the Capitol,” Beutler said...“McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’”
CNN reported that multiple Republicans confirmed the contents of the phone call.
A New York Times story, today, concerned Trump's continuing efforts to distort and recast the events of January 6th.
The Times reporters wrote:
A New York Times review of Mr. Trump’s public statements found more than 150 instances in the past year in which he falsely claimed he had won the 2020 election, portrayed Jan. 6 rioters as victims and denigrated investigators of the Capitol riot.
His campaign to rewrite the history of Jan. 6 was often overshadowed by major policy moves: Sweeping tariffs on goods across the globe, troops dispatched into American cities, missile strikes on foreign lands.
But time and again, he would come back to 2020 — often unprompted.
“They didn’t assault,” Mr. Trump said of the Jan. 6 rioters on Feb. 9. “They were assaulted.” In reality, more than 150 police officers were injured during the Capitol violence.
The web page published today by the White House says the following:
The Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as “insurrectionists” and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump—despite no evidence of armed rebellion or intent to overthrow the government. In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection [the bold type appears in the White House text] by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters, all while Pelosi’s own security lapses invited the chaos they later exploited to seize and consolidate power. This gaslighting narrative allowed them to persecute innocent Americans, silence opposition, and distract from their own role in undermining democracy.
The use of the term "gaslighting," in the above paragraph's last sentence, is, to say the least, rich.
