When debate moderators asked Donald Trump Tuesday night if there was anything he regretted about his actions on Jan. 6, the former president drew a blank.
“I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech,” Trump said. “I showed up for a speech.”
Trump once again denied having any prominent role in the attack on the Capitol — really any role — and blamed the riot on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“I went to Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C.,” Trump said, claiming he told them there was going to be “a very big rally, or whatever you want to call it,” and said he wanted to give them 10,000 National Guard soldiers.
But as CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale pointed out Tuesday night, there’s no evidence Pelosi ever got such an offer — and she wouldn’t have had the power to turn down an offer like that if she had. The D.C. National Guard is under the command of the president, not the speaker of the House.
“The Speaker is not in charge of Capitol security,” Dale said.
The House’s Jan. 6 committee has also debunked Trump’s claim about the troops. Pelosi never received a formal request, according to the committee.
But that wasn’t the story Trump delivered Tuesday night. Instead, he mostly avoided the question and noted that he told his supporters to engage “peacefully and patriotically.” And he actually defended the rioters.
“Nobody on the other side was killed,” Trump said, ignoring that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died the day after Jan. 6 due to strokes that may have been caused by the traumatic event, as well as four police officers who committed suicide in the days and months following the riot. “Ashli Babbitt was shot by an out-of-control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It’s a disgrace.”
In a common theme of the night, Trump finished off his answer by moving on to immigration: “I ask, what about all the people that are pouring into our country and killing people that you allowed to pour in?” Trump asked of Kamala Harris. “When are they going to be prosecuted?”
ABC moderator David Muir tried returning to the issue at hand: “It’s a very simple question. As we move forward toward another election, is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?”
But Trump again said he had nothing to do with Jan. 6.
Meanwhile, Harris squarely put the blame on Trump.
“I was at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” Harris said. “I was the vice president-elect. I was also an acting senator. I was there, and on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s Capitol, to desecrate our nation’s Capitol.”
“Donald Trump, the candidate, has said, in this election, there will be a bloodbath if this and the outcome of this election is not to his liking,” she said. “Let’s turn the page on this. Let’s not go back.”
But once again, Trump’s response was to return to the border.
“You talk about the Capitol. Why are we allowing these millions of people to come through on the southern border? How come she’s not doing anything?” he said.