During a rally on Sunday in Nevada, former President Donald Trump showed more support for those who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling them “warriors.”
“Those J6 warriors – they were warriors – but they were really, more than anything else, they’re victims of what happened,” Trump said.
He went on to say that what they were doing was justified because of the circumstances, which involved his false stolen election claims.
“All they were doing is protesting a rigged election. That’s what they were doing,” Trump continued.
Trump then pushed the false narrative that police had welcomed rioters into the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, saying they told them to “Go in, go in, go in, go in.”
“What a set up that was,” Trump added. “What a horrible, horrible thing, and you know, that blows two ways, that blows two ways, believe me.”
During the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, 140 officers were injured, and five died in the days after the attack. Despite Trump and his supporters’ efforts to say the event was peaceful, some officers who were present said the scene looked like a “war zone.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has appeared sympathetic to those being prosecuted over their actions on Jan. 6. Last November, he referred to them as “hostages.” In March, he said he would “Free the Jan. 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!” as one of his first actions if reelected.
Two years after the events, more than 1,200 defendants have been charged in connection to the Capitol attack, and more than 450 have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, the Justice Department reports.
More than 700 of those individuals have pleaded guilty.