Nobody is believing Donald Trump’s egregious lies about January 6th

At this point, it shouldn’t be surprising that Donald Trump continues to downplay the insurrection. And here we are yet again, watching him pretend like it wasn’t that big of a deal and spreading conspiracy theories.

Trump took part in an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief, John Micklethwait. During their conversation, Micklethwait asked Trump if he lost the 2024 election, if he would commit to peacefully accepting the defeat. It was a nod to the 2020 election which resulted in a storming of the nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump claimed he did just that during the 2020 election.

“It was love and peace, and some people went to the Capitol,” Trump said. “And a lot of strange things happened there, a lot of strange things, with people being waved into the Capitol by police.” What he is referring to is the alleged police officers who allowed the rioters into the building when they were not permitted. The conversation went on with Micklethwait pushing back and Trump’s lies and Trump deflecting by saying that Micklethwait was never a fan.

But not only did he lie about the size of the crown (Trump said only about 500-700 of his supporters went in), he also lied about them not bringing guns into the government building. Allegedly, multiple members of the 1500+ rioters had guns and it was reported that one man shot a gun in the air. “Not one of those people had a gun, nobody was killed, except for Ashli Babbitt,” he said.

CBS News Congressional Correspondent Scott MacFarlane fact checked Trump’s statements on his X account, writing: “There are 1500+ Jan 6 defendants so far. Multiple defendants are accused of carrying guns in the mob. One is accused of firing his gun into the air.”

This is a common trend with Trump and JD Vance

Their latest lie on the campaign trail is that Trump took part in a peaceful transfer of power during the 2020 election. Trump’s Vice President pick, JD Vance, recently claimed that Trump participated in a peaceful transfer of power and blamed a “few knuckleheads” for the insurrection. Again, there were at least 1500 MAGA supporters taking part of January 6. Trump had previously called those “knuckleheads” patriots.

“Donald Trump asked people to protest peacefully,” Vance said when a reporter asked him if he condemned the riot at a rally in Johnstown. “He had every right to encourage people to protest peacefully, and the fact that a few knuckleheads went off and did something they shouldn’t do, that’s not on him; that’s on them, that’s on them.”

The reframing of January 6 isn’t fooling anyone. Those of us who watched it live watched as Trump rallied up the crowd, urged them to march to make their voices heard, we know the truth. “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump said in his speech and it resulted in over a thousand people marching to the Capitol building.

Vance and Trump want to downplay the reality of January 6. But we won’t forget.