On Jan. 6 anniversary, Trump repeats lie that 2020 election was stolen

Attendees wait in a line before entering a campaign event for former President Donald Trump during in Clinton Iowa, on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. In a two-hour speech in Newton, Iowa, the former president said those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had acted “peacefully and patriotically.” (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

By Kellen Browning and Michael Gold

Three years to the day that supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory, Trump said yet again that the mob had been acting “peacefully and patriotically.” He called for the release of people imprisoned for their actions that day, and he criticized the congressional committee that investigated the attack as “fake.”

Speaking to crowds of several hundred people at two events Saturday in Iowa, Trump, who faces criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, made only passing references to the riot, focusing much of his speeches instead on criticizing Biden’s policies.

But at his second event, Trump — who has repeatedly referred to the people serving sentences in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack as “hostages” — called on Biden to free them. More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the attack, 170 have been convicted of crimes at trial and more than 700 have pleaded guilty.

“Release the J6 hostages, Joe,” Trump said in Clinton, Iowa. “Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe.”

Trump’s speeches Saturday came a day after Biden forcefully condemned the former president as “pro-insurrectionist” and a perilous threat to democracy. Trump offered only minimal response to those denunciations.

At his first event, in Newton, Trump called Biden’s speech “ridiculous” and argued that the president was overly focused on the Jan. 6 attack in order to divert attention from his record.

“That’s going to be their case,” Trump said later in the day. “Because he can’t say anything good.”

Throughout both speeches, Trump repeatedly invoked the lie at the heart of the riot: that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And, as he frequently has in recent months, Trump sought to deflect accusations that he and his policies are anti-democratic by pointing his finger at Biden.

“He’s a threat to democracy because he’s incompetent,” Trump said in Newton, even as he accused Biden of being the mastermind behind the criminal charges against him. There is no evidence that Biden has meddled in any of the four criminal cases against Trump, which span federal and state courts.

“He’s corrupt. He’s incompetent. He has no idea,” Trump said of Biden. “He weaponized the DOJ and the FBI.”

Many of those in attendance in Newton, and at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday, said they supported mild punishment for anyone who had, in fact, committed a crime on Jan. 6. But they added that the severity of the event had been overstated and that the investigations into the riot had no merit.

“You do the crime, you do the time. But just being there is not a crime,” Bruce Fedders, 67, said in Sioux Center, adding, “Jan. 6 — I won’t even use ‘insurrection.’”

Gary Leffler, a Trump caucus captain and former candidate for the House of Representatives, said he had marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, although he had not gone inside the building.

“There was no feeling from anyone that was there that this was an insurrection,” Leffler, 62, said in Newton. “That’s a pile of horse manure.”