In a newly released video presented by the select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol, Donald Trump is seen literally unable to say that he lost the 2020 election.
During the eighth of its televised summer hearings, the panel played excerpts from a recording of a January 7, 2021, speech in which the then-president was to condemn the violence that unfolded the day before.
His staff had urged him to draw a line under the events at the Capitol, but as shown in the footage, Mr Trump is seen refusing to go as far as he had hoped, repeatedly editing the text written in front of him.
“Those who broke the law,” he says, “you will pay for not representing our movement, not representing our country. And if you broke the law… I can’t say. I won’t, I’ve already said ‘you will pay “.
He also rejects the opening of the discourse. “I’d like to start by addressing the hateful attack yesterday,” he says, before interrupting: “Yesterday is a difficult word for me. Take the word yesterday, because it doesn’t work with a hateful attack in our country, to example, in our country. I’m going to say that my only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote.”
At another point, he refuses to read a key passage: “But this election is over, Congress has certified the results.”
“I don’t mean the election is over,” he declares, “I just mean ‘Congress has certified the results’ without saying ‘the election is over,’ OK?”
He then struggles with the phrase: “My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote.”
As Democratic Select Committee member Elaine Luria, who co-chaired the hearing, summarized: “On January 7, one day after inciting an insurrection based on a lie, President Trump still could not say that the election they were done.”
Earlier in the hearing, Sarah Matthews, a former deputy press secretary, called the day of the riots “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history.”
She said that while she had already decided to leave the administration because of Mr. Trump’s response to the insurgency earlier in the day, a tweet she sent later in the afternoon convinced her to go ahead.
“I thought January 2021 was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Ms. Matthews said, “and President Trump was treating it as an occasion for celebration with this tweet and so , further solidified my decision to resign.”