Trump received’t say the one factor that might actually settle down his followers

The official White House Twitter account on Wednesday night posted a lengthy video of President Donald Trump denouncing violence and calling for calm forward of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration subsequent Wednesday. But it didn’t take lengthy for the Trump administration and its allies to undermine his message.

In the greater than five-minute video, Trump says issues like, “I want to be very clear: I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw” when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol final week whereas Congress was within the technique of certifying his Electoral College loss to Joe Biden, leaving at the very least 5 folks lifeless. Alluding to threats of violence towards state capitols and the presidential inauguration, Trump stated, “There must be no violence, no lawbreaking, and no vandalism of any kind.”

One factor Trump doesn’t say, nevertheless, is acknowledging the truth that his loss to Biden was legit and never the results of any form of election fraud.

On the opposite, regardless of an entire lack of proof, it seems Trump and a few of his acolytes nonetheless imagine the election was stolen from him. Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt reported for the New York Times on Wednesday night that “on Air Force One on Tuesday, during a trip to the southern border at Alamo, Texas, the president repeatedly said of the election to people traveling with him, ‘I won.’” Then on Thursday morning, one of many few White House officers nonetheless keen to publicly defend Trump, Peter Navarro, went on Fox News and unfold the identical form of lies concerning the election that impressed the rioters.

“The Democratic Party did violence to this country by attacking a president who I believe was legally elected on November 3,” Navarro stated, including that “74 million Americans out there” are “pissed off” like him.

“We know that there were irregularities in this election,” host Maria Bartiromo replied, citing no proof, and even supposing Trump’s personal authorities officers have characterised the 2020 election as probably the most safe on report.

If Trump was actually involved about stopping one other explosion of violence, he would acknowledge to his followers that his loss to Biden was legit and his claims of election fraud had been made up, and correctly concede the election. But he’s not doing that.

“All Donald Trump has to say to calm tensions down is one sentence: ‘The election was not stolen’”

Trump’s new video was posted hours after a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives voted to question him on a rely of “incitement of insurrection” for his position in final Wednesday’s riot, together with a speech he delivered to hundreds of his followers simply earlier than it through which he invoked “fight” or “fighting” greater than 20 instances. While the House debated the article of impeachment on Wednesday, Trump launched a tweet-like assertion to Fox News that struck an analogous word to his subsequent video, generically denouncing violence whereas abstaining from retracting any of his election lies.

The riot and Trump’s defiant response to it have turned him right into a pariah like by no means earlier than. On Friday, Twitter completely banned his account, citing tweets he posted on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that probably offered “encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts.” The Times studies that Trump’s aides “have warned him that he faces potential legal exposure for the riot.”

Even if Trump isn’t prosecuted, he’s carried out important harm to his model. The PGA Tour introduced on Sunday it’s shifting an upcoming match from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and monetary and banking corporations starting from the net cost processing firm Stripe to Deutsche Bank, which holds a major quantity of Trump’s private debt, have introduced in latest days that they’ll not do enterprise with him.

Although he now has lower than every week left in his time period as president, Trump nonetheless has political motives for making an attempt to distance himself from the unrest. Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey, and Ashley Parker reported for the Washington Post on Wednesday that Trump was persuaded to movie the video the White House posted on Wednesday night by aides who instructed him “it could boost support among weak Republicans” forward of a potential impeachment trial within the Senate.

Even so, Trump doesn’t look like completely bought that taking a stand towards violence is the suitable transfer for him. The Times reported that even after the video was recorded and posted, “Trump still had to be reassured, according to administration officials.”

Trump’s video needs to be seen by way of this prism of his personal self-interest. As House impeachment supervisor Ted Lieu (D-CA) said on MSNBC on Thursday, “All Donald Trump has to say to calm tensions down is one sentence: ‘The election was not stolen.’” Not solely has Trump been unwilling to do this, however Navarro’s feedback point out the extent to which incendiary lies concerning the election proceed to carry sway within the White House.