A video presented by the House Select Committee tasked with investigating the January 6 insurrection shows former Republican President Donald Trump recording an address to the nation the day after a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol on the false premise the 2020 general election had been stolen.
The never-before-seen footage reveals even after Trump incited the Capitol riot and witnessed the violence that left at least five people dead, resulted in over 100 injuries to law enforcement as well as millions of dollars in damages, Trump could not admit he lost the election.
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
Trump can be seen stopping and restarting his speech and disputing the lengths to which he should condemn the attack. He also is shown to have significant trouble reading the teleprompter, at one point saying the word "defied" in place of "defile" in reference to the Capitol breach and at another expressing frustration with saying the word "yesterday."
At one point, he says that "this election is now over" and that "Congress has certified the results."
But then he cuts himself off and says the following:
"I don't want to say the election's over. I just want to say that Congress has certified the results without saying the election's over, okay?"
Data shows that Trump would not have been able to make a worthwhile case for his own victory even if he had tried (and he did).
President Biden received 81,284,666 votes during the 2020 general election and 306 electoral votes, above the 270 needed to become the 46th President of the United States. Biden's win made Trump the first President to lose a reelection bid since George H.W. Bush, also a Republican, in 1992.
Trump—who also lost the popular vote in 2016—has long described his first electoral college win as a “landslide,” but has failed to note Biden defeated him by a larger electoral vote margin than Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by in 2016.
Many have condemned the former President's actions following the video's release and no one was surprised that he continues to push the same lies.
The news of the footage's existence comes after the House Select Committee used one hearing to present a cohesive timeline of what Trump did—and did not do—during a crucial 187-minute period while the attack was underway.
The committee said that Trump had shown "complete dereliction of duty" after witnesses testified that he ignored pleas to condemn the violence and call off the mob.
White House officials said that Trump did not make any calls to the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security during the attack and that he sat in the dining room and watched the attack on television.
