On Saturday, former Chief of Staff of former President Donald Trump opposes a recent attempt by his former boss to whiten the history of the Capitol Rioting of 6 January.
Trump’s words were “hugging and kissing” his supporters and, despite broad violence, “manifestly false,” “null threats” Mick Mulvaney, who step down as Trumpe’s special envoy for Northern Ireland after the insurrection.
“I was surprised to hear the President say that. Clearly there were people who were behaving themselves, and then there were people who absolutely were not, but to come out and say that everyone was fine and there was no risk, that’s just manifestly false — people died, other people were severely injured,” Mulvaney told CNN’s Pamela Brown on “Newsroom.”
“It’s not right to say there was no risk, I don’t know how you can say that when people were killed,” he added.
Mulvaney was one of a handful of high officials, including former Transport Secretary Elaine Chao and former Trump National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger, who resigned in the wake of the January 6 Riot.
Trump sought to rewrite the history of the revolt earlier this week, which he repeatedly and falsely claimed he was robbed of in 2020. There is no proof of widespread fraud, but in the media or on Capitol Hill, Trump and many of its conservative allies have pushed the account forward.
Trump was asked to talk about the security of the US capitol for improving, and also the raser wire fencing, which he deride as “disgraceful” and “political maneuver,” when he was calling Fox on Thursday evening.
“It was zero threat, right from the start, it was zero threat. Look, they went in, they shouldn’t have done it. Some of them went in, and they are hugging and kissing the police and the guards, you know, they had great relationships,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. “A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out.”
Trump’s comments came from the presentation of reams of videos of the violence of 6 January, charges against alleged rioters, reports of violence by police officers and descriptions by legislators of the fear they had that day. The riot left five people dead and more than 100 more police officers were injured, among them Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.
Still, he still said that if he won the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, he would “absolutely” vote for Trump.
Still, he still said that if he won the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, he would “absolutely” vote for Trump.
“I think the more interesting question is what does the Republican primary look like,” Mulvaney said, “And nobody knows, up to and including, I believe, the President. I absolutely believe the President has not made up his mind yet, and probably won’t for a long period of time, maybe even after the primaries start in 2024, so it’s a long way off.”
However, Mulvaney recognized that he would probably have to answer for the events on 6 January if Trump were to run again.
“He’s still a major player in the Republican Party — there’s a lot of folks who were turned off by the last six weeks, and especially the riots, that he’s going to have to do some work to sort of build bridges back with, if he wants to run again.”
