Donald Trump released a video calling for his supporters to remain calm after the US House of Representatives voted to impeach him, as officials drastically tightened security in Washington ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“I unequivocally condemned the violence that we saw last week. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country, and no place in our movement,” Mr Trump said in the recorded message, which did not mention the House action.
“No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence, no true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement, or our great American flag, no true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans,” he added. “If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement, you’re attacking it, and you are attacking our country. We cannot tolerate it.”
The president’s appeal came after the House voted to impeach Mr Trump for an unprecedented second time on a charge of inciting a mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol last week, resulting in five deaths.
The video reiterated the message in a brief written statement issued earlier by the White House, in which the president said: “In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind.”
An internal intelligence bulletin issued on Monday by the US Secret Service identified several groups, including self-styled militias, as posing a potential threat to the Capitol. It warned that some of the organisers of the groups have encouraged attendees to bring weapons to events in Washington, according to a person briefed on the memo. Before Wednesday, Mr Trump, who has been banned from Twitter since last week, had said relatively little since the assault, which grew out of demonstrations claiming that the presidential election was stolen from him. On Tuesday, he denied that anything he said to the crowd before it marched on the Capitol had been inappropriate. CNN
