- Trump said he wanted to march with his supporters to the Capitol on January 6.
- "Secret Service said I couldn't go. I would have gone there in a minute," he told the Washington Post.
- Trump has denied any responsibility for the Capitol siege.
Former President Donald Trump wanted to march with his supporters to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he told the Washington Post in a new interview published Thursday.
Before his supporters violently breached the Capitol while Congress members met to certify Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election win, Trump delivered remarks to his supporters at the Ellipse near the White House that day.
At the end of his speech, he told his supporters: "We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give. … We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."
Soon afterward, the crowd headed toward the Capitol — without Trump — and broke into the building in a violent riot that resulted in several deaths and dozens of injuries.
Trump told the Washington Post that he had tried to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol, but his security detail did not allow him.
"Secret Service said I couldn't go. I would have gone there in a minute," he told the news outlet.
Trump, in his speech before the Capitol attack, elevated false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him because of widespread voter fraud. He had also pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over Congress' election certification, to throw out the electoral votes for several battleground states that Biden carried. Pence, who had no constitutional authority to do so, rejected the request. Trump continues to elevate falsehoods that the election was stolen from him.
The former president has at times denounced the violence that took place on January 6, but denied any responsibility for it and repeatedly mocked the House select committee probing the riot. The congressional panel is currently investigating troves of White House documents that Trump handed over after the Supreme Court rejected his request to withhold them.