ALAMO, Texas (AP) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday took no responsibility for his part in sparking a violent uprising in the US Capitol last week, despite his comments encouraging supporters to march to the Capitol and praise them while they were still working. the attack.
“People thought what I said was perfectly appropriate,” Trump said.
He made the comments during his first public appearance since the Capitol siege, which came when lawmakers summed up the votes of the Electoral College confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Trump arrived in Texas on Tuesday to trumpet his campaign against illegal immigration in an attempt to brush up on his legacy with eight days left in his tenure as lawmakers in Congress would impeach him a second time this week.
In Alamo, Texas, a town in the Rio Grande Valley near the US-Mexican border – the site of the 450th mile of the border wall his administration is building, Trump brushed off Democratic calls to his cabinet to declare him unfit and remove him him from power using the 25th Amendment.
“The 25th amendment is not a risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration,” Trump said. “As the phrase goes, be careful what you wish for.”
The frenzy through the halls of Congress sent lawmakers from both parties and Trump’s own vice president into hiding, while the crowd called for Mike Pence to be lynched for his role as voter supervisor. The scene also undermined the mark of the republic – the peaceful transfer of power. At least five people died, including a Capitol Police officer.
“It’s time for peace and quiet,” Trump said on Tuesday, less than a week after driving the crowds descending on the Capitol. He added, “Respect for law enforcement is the foundation of the MAGA agenda,” referring to his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”.
In the days leading up to the January 6 certification vote, Trump encouraged his supporters to descend to Washington, DC, promising a “wild” meeting in support of his baseless allegations of electoral fraud, despite his own government’s findings to the contrary. claim. Speaking to a crowd on the Ellipse for over an hour, Trump encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” and suggested that Republican lawmakers “would need more courage not to stand up” and the will of voters. to grant him a new term of office. . He also suggested that he march with them on the Capitol.
As Trump went round, thousands of his supporters were already on their way to the Capitol, where lawmakers gathered to count electoral votes. With rioters still in the building and lawmakers hiding in safe locations, Trump, at the urging of aides shocked by the violence, released a video in which he seemingly apologized for the events and said of the rioters, “We love you guys. . You are very special. Go home.”
On Tuesday, Trump said the “ real problem ” was not his rhetoric, but the rhetoric the Democrats used to describe the Black Lives Matter protests and violence this summer in Seattle and Portland.
“Everyone thought it was perfectly appropriate,” Trump said of his own comments.
Trump angrily lashed out at lawmakers’ push for his second impeachment this week, claiming, “It is causing tremendous anger and division and pain far greater than most people will ever understand, which is very dangerous for the US, especially in this very sensitive time. “
Alamo is named after the San Antonio mission where a small group of Texan independence fighters fended off Mexican forces during a 13-day siege. Most of them died, but the mission became a symbol of resistance for Texans, who eventually defeated the Mexican army.
Trump’s visit there – undoubtedly a symbol of the president’s backlash – comes as he spends the final days of his presidency isolated, hurt, and gazing at the prospect of a second impeachment.
While Trump was traveling, Pence assured the country’s governors that the outgoing government is “working diligently” with President-elect Joe Biden’s team. He thanked the governors for their leadership on the coronavirus and promised them a ‘seamless transition’.
Trump aides have urged the president to spend his remaining days in office, highlighting what they see as the most significant 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 with baseless allegations of voter fraud and conspiracy.
In Texas, he delivered comments highlighting his government’s efforts to curb illegal immigration and the progress made on his signature 2016 campaign promise of building a “ great, beautiful wall ” the length of the southern border – an imposing structure made of concrete and reinforced steel. But over time, Trump demanded changes that were largely rejected: he wanted it painted black to burn the hands of those who touched it; he wanted it decorated with deadly points; he even wanted to surround it with a crocodile-filled moat. Although he promised it would be funded by Mexico, the American taxpayers eventually paid the bill.
Ultimately, his government oversaw the construction of about 450 miles of boundary wall construction – likely up to 475 miles on inauguration day. The vast majority of that wall replaces smaller barriers that already existed, although the new wall is considerably more difficult to get around.
For the past four years, Trump and his administration have taken extreme – and often illegal – measures to curb both illegal and legal immigration. Their efforts were aided in his senior year by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought international travel to a halt. But the number of people who have stopped trying to cross the southern border illegally has risen again in recent months. December figures show nearly 74,000 encounters on the southwest border, 3% more than November and 81% more than a year earlier.
Several dozen Trump supporters gathered hours before his visit to the Rio Grande Valley near Harlingen, Texas airport, where he was scheduled to land. They planned to organize a caravan of vehicles with flags that support the president and far-right causes, such as the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Trump warned that a reversal of his policies by Biden would cause a “tidal wave of illegal immigration.” He added, “Ending that policy is knowingly putting America in real serious danger.”
Biden said he would quit build the border wall and take executive action where possible to undo some of Trump’s restrictions on legal immigration and asylum seekers. But Biden and his aides have recognized the possibility of another crisis at the border if they act too quickly, and Biden has said it could take six months for his administration to secure funding and set up the necessary infrastructure to overcome the restrictions from Trump. era. .
In addition to touting the wall, Trump quickly listed his massive changes to the border to discourage asylum. He cited his ‘Stay in Mexico’ policy, requiring more than 65,000 asylum seekers in Mexico to wait for hearings in the U.S. Immigration Court in Mexico since January 2019, and agreements have been made with Central American countries to offer asylum to people seeking protection in the United States.
He attributed his wall for a decline in illegal border crossings from a 13-year high in 2019, but the Government Accountability Office has found that the administration has no measures to correlate the decline in illegal border crossings with the construction of walls.
Trump falsely said he inherited “open borders” from his predecessor, Barack Obama. He leaves office with about the same number of border security officers as when he started, despite a promise to add 5,000, and the monthly number of migrants stopped at the border surpasses the total for much of Obama’s tenure.
___ Writers from 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.