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Nearly three years after the Jan. 6 violence he helped inspire, Donald Trump has had plenty to say about those who rioted in his name. As NBC News reported, however, the former president has apparently come up with a new word to add to his record.
Former President Donald Trump called people serving prison sentences for participating in the Jan. 6 riot “hostages, not prisoners” during a campaign event held at an oil and gas service facility in Houston on Thursday.
“I call them the J6 hostages, not prisoners,” the Republican said last week as he kicked off his campaign event. “I call them the hostages, what’s happened. And it’s a shame.”
Oddly enough, “shame” seems like an appropriate choice of words, though not for the reasons the former president had in mind.
A rhetorical escalation like this seemed unlikely in early 2021. Revisiting our earlier coverage, in the immediate aftermath of the assault on the Capitol, members of the White House Cabinet began conversations about removing Trump from office by way of the 25th Amendment. He and his team decided he needed “cover” to remain in the White House.
And so, the then-president said on Jan. 7, “Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem.” He went on to describe the riot as a “heinous attack.”
Reading from a prepared text, Trump added: “The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy. ... To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction: You do not represent our country, and to those who broke the law: You will pay.”
Five days later, the Republican condemned the “mob [that] stormed the Capitol and trashed the halls of government.” On the final full day of his term, again reading from a script, Trump added: “All Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we cherish as Americans. It can never be tolerated.”
In the months that followed, however, Trump struggled to keep up the pretense that he almost certainly never believed in the first place. By May 2021, the former president was suggesting the rioters were victims. He eventually started describing them as “patriots.”
In the months that followed, he found new ways to go even further. Trump released a song with Jan. 6 inmates, vowed to issue pardons, raised the specter of official government apologies, and headlined multiple fundraisers for Jan. 6 defendants, even as the Republican faces felony charges for his role in trying to overturn his election defeat.
Trump somehow continues to find new ways to push the envelope. It is indeed a “shame.”
This post updates our related earlier coverage.