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- Donald Trump called January 6 "a very beautiful time" in a March 2021 interview.
- ABC News' Jonathan Karl writes in his forthcoming book that Trump "fondly" recalled the crowd on Jan. 6.
- Trump conceded that the day was "marred by what took place" after his speech.
Former President Donald Trump called January 6, the day of the Capitol riot, "a very beautiful time" in a March interview with ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, according to Karl's forthcoming book.
During the interview at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump praised the supporters who attended his speech in which he urged his loyalists to march to the Capitol and protest Congress' certification of then-President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
When Karl asked Trump why he tweeted, "Remember this day forever," hours after the deadly riot, Trump told him that Jan. 6 was "a very beautiful time with extremely loving and friendly people – the largest crowd that I've ever spoken before – with tremendous spirit. And I'm referring to that."
Trump went on, "I'm referring to when I made a speech which was perfectly fine. Some people thought it was mild-mannered …. it was a relatively mind-mannered speech."
Karl said he wasn't expecting Trump to express remorse for his role in inciting the deadly mob, but that he was shocked at how the former president recalled the day with pride.
"I was taken aback by how fondly he remembers a day I will always remember as one of the darkest I have ever witnessed," Karl writes in "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," an advanced copy of which was obtained by Insider.
Trump also insisted that "the fake news" didn't report on the large size of the crowd on the National Mall.
"When I made that speech, it was a magnificently beautiful day," he told Karl. "They never gave the credit to the size of the crowd when the crowd went all the way back to the Washington Monument."
Trump conceded that the day was "marred by what took place" after his speech.
The former president also said he wasn't worried for then-Vice President Mike Pence's safety, even as Trump's loyalists called for Pence's execution and erected a gallows outside the Capitol.
Trump went on to justify his supporters' chants of "hang Mike Pence."
"It's common sense," he said. "How can you - if you know a vote is fraudulent, how can you pass a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do it?"