Trump calls for release of Jan. 6 rioters, falsely describes Capitol attack as 'peaceful'
Former President Donald Trump campaigned in Iowa on the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot Saturday, shrugging off the event as "patriotic and peaceful," then attacking the lead prosecutor bringing charges against him and the congressional committee that investigated the insurrection.
Trump persisted in falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election he lost to Joe Biden was "rigged" — the same exhortations that prompted his supporters to breach the Capitol in an attempt to halt congressional certification of the results — and he dismissed both the lead-up and aftermath of the riot that resulted in multiple deaths.
"Nobody thought J6 was even a possibility," he told supporters at Des Moines Area Community College's Newton, Iowa, campus.
Iowa caucuses: On 3rd anniversary of Jan. 6 riots, GOP presidential candidates reveal what they learned
And later, when speaking about policies on the U.S. southern border, he invoked the term "insurrection" to reference immigrants crossing the U.S. illegally, and contrasted it with Jan. 6, which he said was done "patriotically and peacefully."
"You talk about insurrection? That's the real deal," he said. "Not patriotically and peacefully."
During his remarks at a later campaign stop in Clinton, Iowa, Saturday evening, Trump called for the release of those convicted and imprisoned for crimes relating to the riot, describing them as "J6 hostages" and calling on President Biden to release them.
“They ought to release the J6 hostages,” Trump said, drawing cheers from the crowd at Clinton Middle School. “I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners, I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You could do it real easy, Joe.”
Trump also mocked the U.S. House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 riot, calling it a "fake committee" and attacking former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the panel's two Republican members.
And he said Jack Smith, the special counsel who has criminally charged Trump for interfering in the 2020 election, was "the personification of evil" and "a sad sack."
"Because I fought against a corrupt election, I was indicted," Trump said, ignoring multiple judicial rulings and even his own administration that found there was no evidence of fraud that would have altered the outcome.
Iowa caucuses: Trump sends sympathy over Perry shooting, 'but we have to get over it'
Michell Harvilla, a 58-year-old Clinton resident who attended Trump's campaign event in Clinton Saturday evening, said she believes the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Harvilla, who plans to caucus for Trump, said she believes the former president is ultimately not to blame for what had happened at the U.S. Capitol because he had called for a peaceful march, not the violent attack that ultimately unfolded on the grounds.
“I’m hopeful we get our true president, moving forward,” said Harvilla, a paraeducator and librarian tech at Clinton Middle School, where the get-out-to-caucus event was held Saturday.
Jennifer McAndrew Lane, a probation officer who also attended Trump's event in Clinton Saturday, echoed those beliefs, stating her support for the former president has not been swayed.
McAndrew Lane described the investigation into Jan. 6 as a politically motivated “joke” and criticized states such as Colorado and Maine that have taken steps to remove Trump from the ballot over the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment. The 49-year-old Scott County resident said she believes doing so takes away citizens' rights to cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice.
“I believe firmly in the court of law. That’s not a court of law,” said McAndrew Lane, 49-year-old rural Scott County resident.
But in a statement Saturday, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart excoriated Trump for being willing to "sacrifice our democracy and defy the will of the people in order to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election."
"Three years later, Trump’s here in Iowa to try to rewrite history and deny his role in inciting a deadly insurrection on our nation’s Capitol — but Iowans watched with their own eyes as he encouraged his supporters to riot before they violently assaulted law enforcement," Hart said. "We lived through one of the darkest days in our nation’s history because of Donald Trump, and yet, he is still threatening to tear apart the foundations of this country if he gets the chance."
Trump says Civil War was 'fascinating' and 'horrible,' and could have been avoided
The former president in his remarks Saturday also ruminated on the American Civil War, saying he was "so attracted to" studying it and theorizing that the conflict between the Union and the Confederacy could have been avoided through negotiation.
"I think you could have negotiated that," Trump said. "So many people died.
He added that "of course, if you negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was."
Several attempts were made to mend relations and negotiate a compromise on the issue of slavery before southern states began to secede, including the Compromise of 1850, which allowed California to enter the Union as a free state while strengthening fugitive slave laws, among other provisions.
Those deals ultimately just delayed the war.
Trump: 'I'm going to caucus, OK?' (He can't)
The former president told supporters in Newton Saturday that he planned to be in Iowa for Caucus Day, and said he was "going to caucus," although he would be barred from doing so under the Iowa Republican Party's rules for the contest.
Trump, a resident of Florida, is not eligible to participate in the caucuses, which are limited to registered Republicans who are legal Iowa residents.
"I'm coming to Iowa, we're going to be picking some nice location, we have a lot of people. I'm going to caucus, OK?" Trump said, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
And when encouraging attendees to learn the caucus procedure, he said "I'm going to have to learn, too, by the way."
"I haven't done this before. But they're going to teach me. I'm a quick study, and so are you."
His remarks were quickly pointed out by allies of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose wife, Casey, was criticized, provoking a response from the Iowa GOP after encouraging supporters from outside of the state to "descend" on the state for the caucuses.
Trump's swing through Iowa on the penultimate weekend before the caucuses comes just days after a school shooting in Perry, which killed an 11-year-old and wounded several other students and staff, including the school principal. The 17-year-old gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In remarks Friday afternoon in Sioux Center, he expressed "support and deepest sympathies" to the families and victims, saying "it's so surprising to see it here."
"But we have to get over it. We have to move forward," Trump added. “To all the relatives, and all the people who are devastated right now, to the point they can't breathe, they can’t live, we are with you all the way.”
Trump takes aim at Biden policies, other GOP presidential hopefuls
At that Sioux Center speech and a second Friday stop in Mason City, he ramped up his attacks on Republican presidential opponents Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In December's Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll, Trump was the faraway frontrunner in the Republican field, receiving 51% first-choice support and leading his closest challenger by 32 percentage points.
Trump continued those attacks against fellow presidential hopefuls during his campaign stop in Clinton, but Biden took on the brunt of his attacks. During his nearly two-hour remarks Saturday, Trump blamed Biden — calling him "crooked Joe Biden" — for rising inflation and increased illegal immigration at the southern border.
“America’s not great right now," Trump told supporters. "We’re going to make it great, we’re going to make it greater than ever before, but right now we’re a laughing stock of the world. This election is our last chance to save America, and that begins in Iowa. It begins right here.
"The battle begins in Iowa. First in the nation, it begins right here in Iowa on Jan. 15 and Joe Biden’s banana republic ends on Nov. 5, 2024.”
Register reporters Donnelle Eller and Michaela Ramm contributed to this story.
Galen Bacharier covers politics for the Register. Reach him at [email protected] or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Trump calls for release of rioters who attacked Capitol on Jan. 6
