President Donald Trump dug up his plea to Jan. 6 rioters as Americans honored 9/11 victims on the 25th anniversary of the September 2001 attacks.
Trump, 80, bizarrely reposted a 2021 video of himself appealing to his supporters as a violent mob stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
The minute-long video, reposted to Trump’s Truth Social page on Friday, contained unfounded claims of a “stolen election.”
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” the clip began.
“But you have to go home now,” he added. “We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt. It’s a very tough period of time.”
It was not immediately clear what prompted Trump to repost the video on the anniversary of 9/11, and the White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Daily Beast.
Trump addressed his supporters only after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle urged him to speak out as rioters wrecked the Capitol. The video was posted more than two hours after a pro-Trump mob derailed a joint session of Congress to confirm Biden’s victory.
“There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country,” Trump insisted in the video. “This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace.”
“So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home and go home at peace,” he concluded.
The riot ultimately led to the deaths of five people. Four officers also took their own lives in the aftermath.
With the midterm elections quickly approaching, concerns have grown in recent days of Trump and his allies potentially taking drastic measures to retain Republican control.
A former conservative judge warned in an op-ed for The New Republic this week that “another Jan. 6” could occur on Jan. 3, 2027—the start of a brand new House after the midterms.
Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was nominated by former President George H. W. Bush to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, predicted that congressional Republicans would refuse to seat Democratic members-elect, triggering a legal battle that could eventually reach the Supreme Court.
“Today’s congressional Republicans took a blood oath six years ago not just to put their party before their country, but to put Donald Trump before their country,” he wrote. “And so it is that only weeks before the midterm elections, House Republicans have already sworn their allegiance to Donald Trump and doomed the U.S. to another Jan. 6 next Jan. 3.”
