And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
seems to be going even further
and downplaying
Trump's
role in the attack on the Capitol.
Let's listen to that
It was not an insurrection.
These are people
that were there to attend a rally
and then they were there to protest.
Now it devolved
and it devolved into a riot.
But the idea that this was a plan
to somehow over
to overthrow the government,
the United States is not true.
It ended up devolving,
you know, in ways
that was unfortunate, of course.
But to say that they were sedition
is just wrong.
Actually, he's wrong there because
members of the Oath
Keepers
were convicted on charges of sedition.
He was not there.
Obviously you were.
How do you respond to that?
You know, actually that.
Yeah, he's wrong.
I was specifically involved in that case.
And, you know,
I'm not going to talk much about it.
But yes,
the members of the Oath Keepers
and the Proud Boys
have been convicted
of seditious conspiracy.
So he's
saying that the government was wrong
as the jury of their peers.
Wrong
unless he's saying that
that his statement is 100% false.
I can understand him having an opinion
and saying that everybody
not everybody
there may have not been there
to overthrow the government,
that you can have that opinion.
That's fine.
But to come out and say that it wasn't,
then you're you're wrong.
Mr. DeSantis.
Yeah.
And the target letter sent to Trump
I wanted to ask you about this
reportedly does not mention insurrection.
Or sedition.
And we should know, we don't know
what ultimately will be
in the charging documents
if Trump is ultimately indicted.
But would you be disappointed
if Trump is simply charged
with election interference
or interfering
with congressional action,
that sort of thing,
and not inciting
the attack on the Capitol,
those those types of charges? Well,
I don't want to get ahead of myself.
I do want to wait
until I see what actually is in the the
the charging dock.
If even if it is one
you know,
this is one of the times
where are we believing
what President Trump has said,
you know, like he said a lot of stuff?
Or do we even know
that that's official yet?
And I think one of the things that the
the DOJ has said is
they will do their talking
through court filings.
So I'm kind of just going to
err on the side of waiting But
I guess
it would be a little disappointing.
Just to answer your question
specifically, because the individuals
that were there
on January six, they told us
this is the reason why they were
there is
because the president
told us to come there
so short of their own words.
I don't know.
I don't know the evidence.
I don't want to speculate
or anything like that
because that's only going to lead to this
lead to more disappointment
if it isn't
something that I am expecting. So, yeah.
And let me ask you this,
because I'm sure you saw this.
Trump seemed to make a
not so veiled threat
when he asked about the possibility
of special counsel Jack Smith
sending him to prison.
He said it would
be, quote, very dangerous.
And he also reposted something on social
that said something along the lines of,
if you have around with us,
we're coming after you,
that sort of thing.
But he seems to be, again,
implying that his followers
are more passionate than ever.
They may act
if something happens to him
after living through
what took place on January six.
How worrisome is that kind of rhetoric
coming from him once again?
Well, you can't take it lightly
because it's already been proven
that people will act so hard.
You have to take his words seriously.
And I know I just said that
can we take his word seriously?
But when it comes to
that is already proven in
shown that his supporters
will take action.
And we can't
we can't just act like these individuals
don't exist.
There is an audience for Donald Trump.
There is a large audience of people
that support Donald Trump.
A week, just can't brush them aside
as if their feelings
and their beliefs don't matter.
Although we disagree with him,
we can't rush him aside.
But there is under no circumstances
is any room in this country
for political violence
or any violence for that matter.
But let alone from the former president,
the leading candidate,
anybody in political office,
there's no room for that in this country.
Does it surprise you
that Trump is leading in the polls and
cruising ahead of the rest of the field
for this Republican nomination?
Nothing surprises me with him anymore.
Nothing.
No, I'm not I'm not surprised.
I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised.
You've got a book coming out this fall.
I know you're going to do a whole book
rollout and everything.
I don't want to interfere with that.
But tell us a little bit
about what you plan to be saying
in this book.
What's the story you're trying to tell?
No, it's just it's just it's called
Standing My Ground.
And basically what I'm doing now,
I'm not going to shut up
about January six,
especially when there are
so many people on the other side
specifically the two individuals,
DeSantis, Mike Pence
and even Donald Trump
are trying to downplay it
until they're individuals.
Their followers, their supporters.
And it wasn't
what happened
and it wasn't as bad as what happened.
And I'm going to keep on fighting
to make sure that that never happens.
And how much time are
you spending up on the Hill these days?
Are you still every day?
You're up there every day. Every day.
And when these
some of these Republican lawmakers
who have,
you know, downplayed
what took place on
January six, saying
it was tourists
and they were just
walking around the Capitol
and that kind of stuff,
do they look
you in the eye
when you when you crossed paths with them
up on the Hill?
Do they say hello to you?
Do they what you know,
what does that like?
You know,
see some of these same lawmakers
who have downplayed
what took place and lied
about what took place?
I'll say that
when I'm on the Hill, I'm
very focused on
creating a safe environment
for those individuals.
You're doing do their job.
And that and that's
that's why I leave it there.
You know,
I don't
try to get too involved
when when I feel that I can't do my job.
So I
you know, everything that I'm doing
now is in my personal capacity.
And me, just as an American
and as a victim of the attacks
of January six.
But when I'm up there at my job
doing my job,
and that's what I'm focused
on, creating a safe environment,
no matter who they are,
Republican, Democrat, it doesn't matter.
And do you think it could happen again?
Yeah.
There's been no deterrence put in place.
Well, that that's not entirely accurate.
There have been some deterrence
that have been put in place.
But I mean, just look at,
like you just said,
Donald Trump's
last words about it's dangerous
to go down this route.
So, yeah,
it could happen again because you have a
a group of individuals
like you have an audience for him
and for what happened on January six.
So, yeah, I believe it can happen again.