Filmmaker: Trump ‘irate,’ ‘depressed’ following Jan. 6

A filmmaker who recorded interviews with former President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and members of Trump’s family in the lead-up to and following the 2020 election said Trump appeared “quite irate and quite depressed and frustrated” when he interviewed him after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. 

Alex Holder spoke to CBS’s Norah O’Donnell after sitting for a private two-hour deposition with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The committee issued a subpoena to Holder last week for material he obtained while filming the end of Trump’s reelection campaign for a three-part documentary. 

Holder said in a statement on Tuesday that he provided to the committee interviews he conducted with Trump, Pence, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump since September 2020, along with footage of the Capitol riot. 

Holder told O’Donnell that he also spoke to Trump a second time following the insurrection, in Bedminster, N.J., where he said the former president was “more jovial and content.” 

He said Trump did not seem to realize his role in encouraging the rioters who were present at the Capitol on Jan. 6. He said it would be “fair” to say Trump did not accept any responsibility for what happened on that day. 

“I think what was staggering was that he essentially gave the reason why they were there without fully understanding that he was responsible for that reason,” Holder said. 

But he added that viewers may have different impressions about whether Trump expressed remorse about the day’s events. 

CBS reported that Holder told reporters he also interviewed Trump once before the insurrection occurred.

A representative for Holder said in a statement on Thursday that the Trump family did not request and were not granted any editorial control for the documentary.