There was nothing to do, says Trump about invasion of the Capitol

Former US President Donald Trump (Republican) denied being responsible for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. At the time, supporters of the Republican invaded the headquarters of the US Legislative Branch in an attempt to invalidate Joe Biden’s (Democrat) victory in the elections.

During the 1st presidential debate this Thursday (June 27), Trump tried to deviate from the subject. Asked about the episode, the former president returned to the topic of immigration and stated that the country was better at that time.

“On January 6th we had a big border. Nobody passing by […]. We were energy independent. On January 6th, we had the lowest taxes ever, we had the lowest regulations ever,” Trump said when asked.

Biden tried to explore the issue and questioned whether the president would arrest those involved in the invasion. Trump dodged again and said that “I had practically nothing to do.”

In March, however, Trump had stated that one of his first acts as president, if elected in this year’s elections, will be to release those convicted of the invasion of the Capitol. At the time, he called those detained for the episode “hostages who are unjustly imprisoned”.

The invasion of the Capitol is a sensitive topic for Trump. On August 1, 2023, he was indicted for allegedly inciting his supporters to invade the seat of power.

At the time, he was accused of 3 different conspiracies: conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official process and conspiring against the rights of Americans, in addition to obstruction of an official proceeding. Read the full of the process (PDF – 2 MB). The republican declared himself innocent.

UA possible conviction in the case could prevent the Republican from returning to the White House. This is because the United States Constitution determines that a candidate can only be prevented from running for President if he has been impeached, or has been convicted of rebellion against the country – depending on how the case unfolds, the invasion of the Capitol could fall under this topic –, which would make the Republican ineligible.