Trump refuses to say if he watched Jan. 6 attack unfold at Capitol

Former President Trump repeatedly refused to say when pressed in an interview whether he watched the attack on the Capitol unfold on television.

In the interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker, Trump repeatedly declined to say whether he watched coverage of the attack from the White House and would not answer questions about what phone calls he made that day.

“I’m not going to tell you. I’ll tell people later at an appropriate time,” Trump said when asked whether he was in the dining room that afternoon watching the attack unfold on television, which several accounts from within the White House have alleged.

He also defended the statements he taped from within the Oval Office that day as “beautiful” and referred to his tweets to tell people to go home. 

Several reports, however, have revealed Trump made those statements begrudgingly, and multiple people were lobbying Trump and those close to him to get the former president to issue a statement. 

“Why would I tell you that?” Trump asked when questioned on whom he called that day. 

And on whether he called military or law enforcement officials on the day of the attack, Trump said, “I’m not going to tell you anything.”

He also repeated his unsubstantiated claims that then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had denied his earlier request to protect the Capitol with more troops, prompting Welker to ask why he didn’t send in help at that moment. 

“Frankly, just so you understand, I assumed that she took care of it,” Trump replied, referring to Pelosi. 

Trump, the runaway front-runner in the 2024 presidential GOP primary, has been indicted in four cases, two of which relate to his efforts to stay in power after the 2020 election.