- Former President Donald
Trump claimed that his supporters who stormed the Capitol posed "zero threat." - In fact, five people including a police officer were killed during the failed
insurrection . - "It was zero threat right from the start - it was zero threat," Trump told Fox News on Thursday.
Former President Donald Trump claimed that his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 posed "zero threat" despite the fact that five people including a police officer were killed during the failed insurrection.
"It was zero threat right from the start - it was zero threat," Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday.
"Look, they went in, they shouldn't have done it. Some of them went in and they're hugging the police and the guards. They had great relationships. A lot of the people were waved in and then they walked in and then they walked out."
Trump's comments significantly misrepresent the events during the Capitol riot, which took place after the president told his supporters at a rally to "fight like hell" against the outcome of the presidential election.
Around 140 officers were injured during the attack, according to the head of the Capitol Police union. One officer, Brian Sicknick, died from injuries he sustained during the riot.
"You'll never take back our country with weakness," Trump had told supporters at the rally before hundreds of them stormed the Capitol. He and his followers falsely pushed claims that the election had been "stolen" from him through widespread voter fraud.
"We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we're going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give..." Trump said, although he did not finish the sentence.
The former president also on Thursday suggested his supporters who participated in the siege, many of whom face federal and local charges for trespass and other offenses, were being "persecuted."
"They're persecuting a lot of those people. And some of them should be... some things should happen to them," Trump told Ingraham.
More than 300 people have been charged in connection with the attack. Insider created a searchable database of every suspect who has been charged.