Donald Trump said that "nobody wants to talk about" about how the January 6 rally he spoke at prior to the Capitol attack attracted the "largest crowd I've ever spoken before," in an interview on British television.
Speaking to key Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage on GB News, Trump said: "The real insurrection" happened on November 3, while continuing to claim he won the last election and that antifa protesters played a major part in the January 6 attack.
During the interview, Farage asked Trump whether it "was a mistake" to hold a rally on January 6.
"It was a massive rally with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people. I think it was the largest crowd I've ever spoken to before," Trump replied.
"And I reverse it. The insurrection took place on November 3, that was Election Day, and before and after, that was to me the insurrection. And January 6 was a protest.
"But if you would have looked at the crowd, says nobody wants to talk about that, I believe it was the biggest and most people—and I've spoken to very big crowds—I have never spoken in front of a crowd that size. Nobody ever talks about that.
"And then unfortunately, some bad things happened," Trump added.
Trump became the first president in history to be impeached twice after he was accused of inciting the riot at the Capitol after spending weeks alleging election fraud and then telling a crowd of his supporters at the protest: "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
During his presidency, Trump frequently made references to crowd sizes at his public events.
He has repeatedly claimed that his inauguration had the highest ever public attendance, despite photos proving otherwise, and then frequently inflating the size of his crowds of his rallies by sometimes tens of thousands of people.
The former president also appeared to suggest that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was to blame for the violence that occurred on January 6 during the interview with Farage.
"I suggested 10,000 National Guardsmen to be there, or even the military, because I knew the crowd was going to be massive, because I knew that the anger that took place over the election being rigged," Trump said. "I understood it better than anybody and Pelosi and these people turned it down. We would have had tremendous security, but they turned that down.
"Also, the police say we're not given proper instructions by Capitol Hill, which is Pelosi. They were given some very bad instructions."
Later on, Trump attempted to also pass the blame for the Capitol riot from his supporters to antifa, claiming people from the far-left movement were "leading a lot of people that day" despite there being no evidence so far to suggest this.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
