Former President Donald Trump said that he regrets not marching to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 when his supporters stormed the building in the hopes of overturning the 2020 election.
Trump voiced his regrets during an interview with The Washington Post published on Thursday.
During the interview, Trump took time to defend his silence during the attack on the Capitol by claiming he assumed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser would stop the deadly violence.
"I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isn't she doing something about it? Why isn't Nancy Pelosi doing something about it? And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge," Trump said to the Post. "I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, 'It's got to be taken care of,' and I assumed they were taking care of it."
Trump was asked whether or not he would testify before the congressional committee that is currently looking into the Jan. 6 riots, but he did not answer. However, he did say that he had not been connected and didn't know what he would do if he were.
"It depends what the request is," he said.
Among other questions, Trump was asked whether or not he received any calls during the assault on the U.S. Capitol, to which he responded saying he didn't remember "getting very many."
"Why would I care about who called me? If congressmen were calling me, what difference did it make? There was nothing secretive about it," Trump said. "There was no secret."
The question comes days after the House Select Committee, looking into the riots, received text messages from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife, Ginni Thomas.
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Ginni Thomas had texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, urging him to push election fraud claims and do whatever he could to overturn the election.
Trump shared with the Post that he had spoken with Ginni Thomas during his presidency but that he was not aware of her electoral efforts on Jan. 6.
"First of all, her husband is a great justice. And she's a fine woman. And she loves our country," Trump said.
He also denied using burner phones or deleting call logs from a seven-hour gap in his phone records on Jan. 6.
During the interview, Trump said he did not regret tweeting for supporters to come to Washington, saying it would "be wild!"
He then went on to say that he told them to demonstrate in a "peaceful and patriotic" manner, which those who gathered did not.
The former president even said that he pressed his security to let him march to the Capitol with his supporters, but they would not let him.
"Secret Service said I couldn't go. I would have gone there in a minute," Trump said.
When it came to the question many have asked throughout the last few months, Trump again would not commit to whether or not he would run for president in 2024, saying his health would play a factor.
"You always have to talk about health. You look like you're in good health, but tomorrow, you get a letter from a doctor saying come see me again. That's not good when they use the word again," he said.
However, he did say that his decision would make things more exciting "because it's a little boring now."
"I don't want to comment on running, but I think a lot of people are going to be very happy by my decision," he said.
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