During a wide-range interview published by The Atlantic, former President Donald Trump admitted on video that he did not win the 2020 election and blamed the US Capitol Police for the deadly January 6 riot that he incited.
“I didn’t win the election,” Trump told a panel of professional historians convened in a Zoom call by Princeton professor Julian Zelizer, an admission that could become a key piece of evidence in the various investigations of his attempts to overturn his defeat.
According to the Atlantic, Trump had reached out to the panel in hopes they would produce “an accurate book,” said Zelizer, the author of the scholarly book The Presidency of Donald Trump: A First Historical Assessment.
During the call, Trump boasted about the size of the crow at his January 6 “Stop The Steal” rally that preceded the insurrection after he ordered his followers to march to the capitol to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s electoral victory, saying there was a “lot of love” that day.
The former president also claimed that he recommended 10,000 National Guards be present at the rally, but suggested Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea. He ultimately blamed the capital police for his followers’ actions.
Trump’s admission that he actually lost to Joe Biden could become a key piece of evidence in the various investigations of his attempts to overturn his defeat.
“January 6 has yet to be written, the real story, the accurate story on January 6,” Trump said before claiming that more than one million people attended the rally.
“In my opinion, that was way over a million people. I was the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to,” Trump boasted.
“I had recommended that we have 10,000 of National Guard be present. And it was turned out either by Nancy Pelosi or the Capitol, ” Trump claimed. “It was only a recommendation because I’m saying well, you know, and they felt that the Capitol Police could handle it. And it turned out that the Capitol Police were very much involved.”
Watch the full interview at The Atlantic.
