President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged the swarms of his supporters rioting in and around the U.S. Capitol to “go home now,” while continuing to falsely insist that his reelection was “stolen”.
The president, in a one-minute video posted on Twitter, began by sympathizing with the rioters.
“I know your pain, I know you’re hurt,” Trump said.
“We had an election that was stolen from us, it was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side.”
“But you have to go home now, we have to have peace,” he added. “We have to have peace. We have to have law and order we have to respect our great people in law and order.”
The brief clip came as the Capitol building, where a joint session of Congress was underway to count the Electoral College ballots and confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, was under lockdown due to the riots by Trump’s supporters.
