Donald Trump speaks to followers outside the White House, January 6 (Tasos Katopodis/Getty)

Donald Trump praises those who attended his January 6 speech outside the White House, just before the attack on the US Capitol, as “great people”.

Trump’s declarations about a rigged November 2020 and his invocations to “fight” and “Stop the Steal” incited followers to march on the Capitol, preventing Congressional confirmation of the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

Hundreds of people stormed past Capitol Police and damaged the building, looking for legislators who were sheltering inside. Some called for the execution of representatives and of Vice President Mike Pence, who was overseeing the confirmation of the Electoral College’s result.

Five people, including a police officer, died in the violence. About 140 police officers were assaulted. Hundreds of the invaders have been charged, including more than 50 accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.

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Trump told interviewer Maria Bartiromo, “These were peaceful people, these were great people.”

He continued, turning the thousands at his speech into more than a million:

The crowd was unbelievable and I mentioned the word ‘love’, the love in the air, I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s why they went to Washington.

Too much spirit and faith and love, there was such love at that rally, you had over a million people.

They were there for one reason: the rigged election.

Ignoring the attacks on police officers and threats to legislators and his Vice President, Trump focused on the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt as she tried to climb through a broken window amid a crowd advancing on Capitol personnel.

“Who is the person that shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head?” Trump said. “There is no repercussion — that were on the other side, it would be the biggest story in this country. Who shot Ashli Babbitt? People want to know and why.”

He threw in a conspiracy theory: “I’ve heard also that it was the head of security for a certain high official. A Democrat. It’s gonna come out.”

Trump claimed that any blame should be on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats for not taking the potential for violence seriously: “They are the ones that were responsible.”

Stoking the Lies

Bartiromo also encouraged Trump to amplify his rhetoric of a stolen election, citing the unsupported claims of The Federalist that enough “illegal votes” had been uncovered in Georgia to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

The article reinforced Trump’s pressure after the election on Georgia’s Republican officials to give him the state’s 16 electoral votes.

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Trump proclaimed that there were “35,000” illegal votes, exceeding Biden’s margin of 11,779: “Georgia was so corrupt, so incredibly corrupt. Nobody’s seen anything like it.”

He reiterated his denunciation of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp, “who has done nothing about it”.

Trump added praise of Republican State senators in Arizona — also narrowly won by Biden — who have ordered an audit of November’s votes, over the objections of GOP officials. The audit has been widely criticized by experts over its conduct, with voting machines and ballots compromised.

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But he assailed the US Supreme Court for not keeping him in office, “They didn’t have the courage to take it up. They should be ashamed of themselves.”

“We Don’t Need Windmills in Texas”

Later in the day, Trump fed the falsehoods in a 90-minute ramble to an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas. He railed against “the radical left, the socialists, Marxists, and the critical race theorists”.

Mark Zuckerberg alone spent $400 million dollars on election meddling. In virtually all of the key swing states, he funded unmanned and unprotected drop boxes that were deployed in Democrat run cities and heavily Democrat precincts to scoop up ballots which were supposedly 94, 95, 96% for Joe Biden, because he campaigned so well from his basement.

Trump added that he “aced” a cognitive test — used to evaluate people who may have suffered mini-strokes — with tasks such as identifying an elephant and repeating the words, “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.”

He proclaimed, “We don’t need windmills in Texas.”