Donald Trump Cancels Jan 6 Anniversary Speech In Mar-a-Lago After Sean Hannity Text Messages Revealed
Trump said that, instead, he will have an event in Arizona on January 15
Donald Trump canceled his planned press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, commemorating the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill.
The former president changed plans after the congressional special committee investigating the insurrection published a series of text messages sent by Fox News anchor Sean Hannity to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about his concerns. for the violence on Capitol Hill and his doubts about Trump's voter fraud allegations.
In a message sent on January 5, 2021, Hannity wrote that he was "very worried" for the next 48 hours. In another, sent a few days earlier, he said: "I DON'T see that January 6 is going to happen the way they are telling you."
Trump said that, instead, he will have an event in Arizona on January 15. He is likely to make many of the false statements about the 2020 election that he was expected to make on January 6, but the date change likely serves to distance the president's message from the violent acts that occurred on the Capitol grounds that day. , and thus allow you to avoid questions from reporters.
"In light of the total bias and dishonesty of the Jan 6 Non-Elected Democratic Committee, two failed Republicans and the fake news media, I will cancel the Jan 6 press conference in Mar-a-Lago this Thursday," Trump reported in a statement, attacking the congressional committee that has been responsible for many damaging revelations about the events of January 6 and the hours leading up to them.
The former president continued his vague statement accusing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, of delaying the response of law enforcement agencies necessary to protect herself and her fellow legislators, despite statements by nonpartisan security officials. of the House and of Pelosi's office, who affirm that this did not happen.
He also accused Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat on the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, of "falsifying" a statement by Rep. Jim Jordan, referring to apparently adding some punctuation marks to a text message that Jordan sent to Trump's chief of staff during a committee hearing, in which the altered text was displayed on a graphic created by the team.
Trump's change in plans will also mean that his speech will not compete with a national speech that President Joe Biden will deliver on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Biden is expected to warn of the continuing dangers posed by Trump's falsehoods when it comes to voter fraud and America's electoral systems.
His long-awaited speech has been ridiculed by conservatives in the Senate, who expressed concern that the former president plans to continue discussing the 2020 elections on the national scene, more than a year after his defeat.
"I think it's good that Trump wants to commemorate that he was silent and did not act for 187 minutes on January 6, staying silent on January 6," Kristol wrote on Twitter.
The Senate reaction and Trump's eventual reversal of plans, possibly as a result, illustrate the growing divide between the Republican House and Senate caucuses on the Jan.6 issue.
Many House Republicans, including Representatives Andrew Clyde and Marjorie Taylor Greene, have sought to downplay the severity of the attack on Capitol Hill or spread misinformation about the 2020 election, and continue to do so today. In the Senate, support for this rhetoric is much rarer, especially given Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's opposition to objections to the certification of the race for the year before the day of the riots.
Trump has continued to hold rallies and events since he left office, as he remains unhappy about the 2020 defeat and the overwhelming favorite of Republican primary voters to win the 2024 nomination, according to polls.
