Just Security: Dissecting Trump’s “Peacefully and Patriotically” Defense Of The January 6th Attack
According to the report:“During a speech on the third anniversary of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol last month, former President Donald Trump claimed that his supporters had acted ‘peacefully and patriotically.’ That has been a persistent theme of his for years. Even though Trump’s claim is obviously false, his choice of wording is no accident. The former President was repeating part of a short sentence culled from his lengthy speech at the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021. By focusing on that brief phrase, Trump is trying to deceive both the courts and the public. He wants people to focus on those two words – ‘peacefully and patriotically’ – while ignoring all the inflammatory rhetoric he employed during the same speech.”
The report was written by Tom Joscelyn, who served as a staff member on the House Jan. 6th Committee and was a principal author of their final report; Amb. Norman Eisen (ret.); and Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer.
The words come from Trump’s Ellipse speech on January 6: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Trump and his legal team, Joscelyn, Eisen, and Wertheimer write, “have made that sentence a centerpiece of his defense since the very first legal proceeding arising out of Jan. 6 – namely, his impeachment and Senate trial.”
But, the authors explain, “the full weight of the evidence – first collected by the January 6th Select Committee and now Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office – tells a very different story. And it is a damning one for Trump’s defense. Indeed, the record includes strong evidence that Trump supported the use of violence on Jan. 6 and tried to use it to his political advantage to block the certification of the election. That is in the context in which the one reference to ‘peacefully and patriotically’ in the Ellipse speech will be understood by the jury and should be understood by the American public.”
Trump and his surrogates, Joscelyn, Eisen, and Wertheimer warn, “can be expected to continue making his false ‘peaceful and patriotic’ claims about Jan. 6 to the public. It is for fact checkers, journalists, and other commentators to ensure all Americans understand the complete record and the truth.”
Read the full report on Just Security.
