Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. Secret Service blocked him from making good on his pledge to join supporters marching on Jan. 6, 2021, from the White House to the Capitol ahead of that day’s deadly riot.<\/p>\n
The former president told The Washington Post<\/a> that the \u201cSecret Service said I couldn\u2019t go. I would have gone there in a minute.”<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Secret Service did not immediately reply to an email seeking confirmation that the then-president’s protective detail kept him from joining his supporters at the Capitol that day.<\/p>\n In a wide-ranging interview at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida with Post reporter Josh Dawsey, Trump spoke about the Jan. 6 insurrection, repeated claims of a stolen election and weighed in on the possibility of a 2024 presidential campaign. On at least a dozen occasions throughout their conversation, Dawsey wrote, Trump blamed the events of Jan. 6 on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isn\u2019t she doing something about it? Why isn\u2019t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it?\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump stood by his tweet inviting his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 with a promise that the day would \u201cbe wild!\u201d He also defended his comments at the \u201cStop the Steal\u201d rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, where Trump urged supporters to flock to the Capitol in an effort to block the certification of the Electoral College votes. Trump supporters stormed from that rally to the Capitol, where many attacked police and fought their way into the building. The riot prompted lawmakers, including then-Vice President Mike Pence, to flee to safety and left dozens of police officers injured.<\/p>\n The former president had urged rallygoers outside the White House on Jan. 6 to march to the Capitol and promised to join them, saying “we\u2019re going to walk down [to Capitol Hill], and I\u2019ll be there with you, we\u2019re going to walk down.” But Trump did not follow through on that pledge, instead returning directly to the White House from the rally.<\/p>\n Trump was quickly impeached by the House of Representatives, which accused the then-president of \u201cincitement of insurrection,\u201d the gravest charge ever lodged against a sitting president. Trump, who was later acquitted by the Senate, had told supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally that “you\u2019ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong” and “we fight like hell. And if you don\u2019t fight like hell, you\u2019re not going to have a country anymore.”<\/p>\n Trump repeatedly said in his Wednesday interview with The Post that he deserved more credit for the size of the crowd he drew to the \u201cStop the Steal\u201d rally on the Ellipse, just outside the White House. <\/p>\n \u201cThe crowd was far bigger than I even thought. I believe it was the largest crowd I\u2019ve ever spoken to,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what that means, but you see very few pictures. They don\u2019t want to show pictures, the fake news doesn\u2019t want to show pictures. But this was a tremendous crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n