Donald Trump claims his Jan. 6 speech in which he told supporters to 'fight like hell' was 'extremely calming'
Donald Trump told Fox News that the speech he gave to supporters before the Capitol riot was "extremely calming," after telling supporters to "fight like hell."
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
- Former President Donald Trump claimed that his speech on January 6 was "extremely calming."
- In the speech, the outgoing president told his supporters to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell."
- The former president told Fox News said he had "nothing to hide" from the Jan. 6 congressional committee.
Former President Donald Trump claimed that a speech he gave to supporters on January 6 before the Capitol riot was "extremely calming."
"I have nothing to hide," Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Friday night, referring to the congressional panel investigating the Capitol riot.
"I wasn't involved in that and if you look at my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming, actually."
In the 70-minute speech on January 6, Trump repeated false claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen" from him and encouraged his followers to march to the Capitol.
"You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong," Trump said in the speech.
"We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
—Jack Nicas (@jacknicas) January 6, 2021
In the interview with Laura Ingraham on Friday, Trump said the events on January 6 were a "protest" and that the hundreds of arrested rioters were "innocent."
"It was a protest. The insurrection took place on November 3rd, which was election day. This was a protest and a lot of innocent people are being hurt. A lot of innocent people are being injured," he said.
Trump also discussed his attempts to try and prevent the January 6 select committee from obtaining a tranche of executive branch documents relating to their investigation.
The former president asserted executive privilege over several of the documents.
On Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled against Trump's request to block the committee from obtaining records.
Speaking to Laura Ingraham, Trump said he had "nothing to hide" but was asserting executive privilege as a principle.
"The biggest loser would be Biden, because if it ever changes, and I think it will, then he won't be able to use it with respect to Hunter [Biden] and all of the things that are going on that are so terrible. So I would think that he'd want to see this upheld, frankly," Trump said.
It's not clear what the former president was referring to about President Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Trump also lashed out at congresswoman Liz Cheney, who is one of only two Republicans on the January 6 congressional committee.
The former president called her a "warmonger" and "not a Republican."
"I call it the un-select committee of Democrat partisans, it's ridiculous what's going on that," he said.