At one point, the former president refuses to read an excerpt ending the election.
New Delhi:
Former US President Donald Trump declined to say that he lost the 2020 US presidential election, showing a behind-the-scenes video of him trying to read a statement to the nation prepared by his staff.
The outtakes, presented by the select committee probing the 2021 Capitol Hill riots, also showed Trump refused to go out of his way to condemn the rioters.
“This election is now over. Congress has certified the results,” Trump was to tell Americans.
But he couldn’t.
Never-before-seen footage shows Donald Trump struggling to read pic.twitter.com/HmsF97FQlF
— no jumper (@nojumper) 23 July 2022
In the video, recorded nearly 24 hours after the rioters attacked the US Capitol, a speech meant to condemn the violence saw Trump refusing to read what his staff had written and repeated the text. Edited seen.
“For law breakers,” he reads, “you will pay. You don’t represent our movement, you don’t represent our country. And if you’ve broken the law…. I can’t say that.” I’m not going… I already said ‘you’ll pay’.”
He also withdrew the opening of his speech. “I want to begin by addressing yesterday’s heinous attack,” he begins, before interrupting himself and saying: “Tomorrow is a difficult word for me. Take the word tomorrow, because it is a heinous attack on our country.” Say on our country. I am going to say that my only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote.”
At another point, the former president refuses to read an excerpt ending the election.
“But this election is over now, Congress has certified the results,” read the passage.
“I don’t want to say that the election is over,” he declares, “I just want to say ‘Congress has certified the results’ without saying ‘the election is over’, right? “
“My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote,” he says, apparently struggling.
Trump has slammed the panel investigating the Capitol Hill riots as a “kangaroo court”. He also referred to the panel’s vice president, Liz Cheney, as a “holy loser.”
“Elections were rigged and stolen from me and our country. America is going to hell. Should I be happy?” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, as he accused the panel of being “corrupt and highly partisan.”
“Because they know the answer, and don’t like it. Court a kangaroo!” Trump added.