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Did Trump watch Capitol riots live? Ex-POTUS calls rally 'love fest', blames Nancy Pelosi for poor security

When Trump was asked about his reaction to the riot, he went on to brag about the crowd size at the rally, calling it 'massive', a 'love fest' and a 'beautiful thing'

Former president Donald Trump condemned what he called "incorrect reporting" by the mainstream media on the Capitol Hill riots that took place on January 6, denying reports that he had watched the insurrection unfold live on television. He also blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the chaos that followed on the day.

Following his speech at CPAC 2021, Trump called into Fox News for an interview during which host Steve Hilton asked him about his response to the insurrection. Responding to a Washington Post story that claimed he was “watching it all unfold” at the White House, Trump lashed out saying, “That’s incorrect reporting. First of all, I wasn’t watching TV. I turned it on later on when I heard about it, and did a lot of moves.”

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The Post had been told at the time by a former Trump adviser that the ex-commander-in-chief was glued to TV as his supporters stormed the Capitol building. “He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,” the source told the newspaper. “If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”

When Trump was asked about his reaction to the riot following his speech on January 6, the ex-POTUS went on to brag about the crowd size at the Washington rally, calling it "massive", a "love fest" and a "beautiful thing". He went on to add that he spoke to the Department of Defense days before the rally was scheduled and requested 10,000 national guards at the rally. "They took that number — from what I understand — they gave it to the people at the Capitol which is controlled by Pelosi and I heard they rejected it because they didn't think it'll look good."

When Trump was pressed on his reaction to the riots, Trump again deflected the question, calling it a "double standard". “When you see Washington burning and when you see Seattle burning and Portland burning and all these other places burning with Antifa, and the radical left, nothing seems to happen,” Trump said.

People on Twitter reacted to the interview, calling out Trump for deflecting the blame on Pelosi. "Deflection anyone?" one of the users wrote while another said, "yawn* He really needs new material." A third added, "'IT WAS A LOVE FEST'. My foot!" The next pointed out, "'I tuned in when I heard about it' Can't name one 'top level person.'" Another commented, "Again with the crowd size..." One more remarked, "Hmm that’s interesting that he requested national guard day before."

A commenter tweeted, "I am so glad I don’t have to listen to that voice anymore." One more said, "Hated to see it...Because it didn’t succeed." Another stated. "I'm so grateful that man can't tweet anymore." A person reacted with, "He can’t help himself at this point, he’s too far gone. A question about does he get how serious Jan 6 was turned was immediately followed by over a minute of thinly veiled bragging about his attendance numbers."