Supporters of the former president attacked the Capitol as Congress was confirming Joe Biden’s electoral college win in the 2020 election, the worst attack on the seat of democracy in more than two centuries. The insurrection left four people dead, and an officer who had been sprayed with a powerful chemical irritant, Brian D. Sicknick, suffered a stroke and died the next day. About 140 members of law enforcement were injured as rioters attacked them with flagpoles, baseball bats, stun guns, bear spray and pepper spray.
As a result, the House impeached Trump for inciting an insurrection.
Trump’s comments to Bell came on the same day President Biden is scheduled to deliver a prime-time address in Philadelphia about extremist threats to American democracy and efforts to rescue “the soul of the nation,” and as Trump is battling in court over top-secret documents he apparently took to his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office and did not return despite being subpoenaed.
Biden on Thursday night is expected to deliver a dire warning on rising political violence and threatening rhetoric, a message he has ramped up in recent weeks. In his latest public appearances, the president has doubled down on his concerns that “MAGA Republicans” have captured much of the GOP and are threatening democracy by encouraging attacks against federal authorities and political figures, pushing debunked speculations and continuing the promotion of false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
Trump, during his conversation with Bell on Thursday morning, also said that he met with some Jan. 6 defendants in his office this week and that he is helping some financially.
“I am financially supporting people that are incredible and they were in my office actually two days ago, so they’re very much in my mind,” Trump said. “It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people is disgraceful.”
A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how the former president is financially supporting the rioters.
Trump has raised the prospect of pardons in previous interviews, as well, but the notion of an apology and financial support is a new element.
The former president, who has not officially announced a 2024 presidential bid but is expected to do so, said that, if “I decide to run, and if I win, I will be looking very, very strongly about pardons, full pardons.”
“That is probably going to be best, because even if they go for two months or six months [to jail], they have sentences that could go a lot longer than that,” he said.
“Oh, years and years,” Bell added.
“We’re working on it very hard, we’re working with legal,” Trump said, though he also did not offer details about how he is “financially supporting” the rioters.
And while Trump appears to be touting his generosity toward supporters who participated in the Capitol riot, as the Daily Beast reported in May and August last year, the former president has notably refused to pay the legal fees of his attorney and close ally Rudy Giuliani, who faces multiple investigations in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In his interview with Bell, Trump suggested that the Jan. 6 defendants are “mostly” “firemen, they’re policemen, they’re people in the military.” He accused the justice system, which he described as “this radical left system,” of mistreating the defendants.
“They’re sick, they don’t mind,” Trump said. “Some of the legal people…
