Following ever louder urgings from politicians across both sides of the aisle, shortly after 1600 Trump released a video statement in which he urged protesters from the “March for Trump” who invaded the U.S. Capitol to stand down and go home, but not before blasting the “stolen” election.
Addressing the demonstrators, Trump said “I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it.”
But the president insisted that protesters retreat, saying: “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
The President continued :
“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. 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. 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’ve seen the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home and go home in peace.”
Twitter quickly locked down the tweet, making it impossible to be retweeted or liked “due to a risk of violence.”
To be sure, Trump previously expressly tweeted for demonstrators to “[p]lease support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement” and “for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful.”
Ahead of Trump’s video, Joe Biden appeared on TV and called on President Donald Trump to go on television to demand an end to what he called a “siege” of the U.S. Capitol.