A kiadott nyilatkozat már bőven az ostrom után volt. Előtte azonban:
Starting at 11:58, from behind a bulletproof shield, President Trump gave a speech, declaring that he would "never concede" the election, criticized the media, and called for Pence to overturn the election results, something outside Pence's constitutional power.[87][214] His speech contained many falsehoods and misrepresentations that inflamed the crowd.[215] Trump did not overtly call on his supporters to use violence or enter the Capitol,[216] but his speech was filled with violent imagery[217] and Trump suggested that his supporters had the power to prevent Biden from taking office.[216] The same afternoon, Pence released a letter to Congress in which he said he could not challenge Biden's victory.[87][218]
Trump called for his supporters to "walk down to the Capitol" to "cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them." He told the crowd that he would be with them, but he ultimately did not go to the Capitol. As to counting Biden's electoral votes, Trump said, "We can't let that happen" and suggested Biden would be an "illegitimate president".[216][217] Referring to the day of the elections, Trump said, "most people would stand there at 9:00 in the evening and say, 'I want to thank you very much,' and they go off to some other life, but I said, 'Something's wrong here. Something's really wrong. [It] can't have happened.' And we fight. We fight like Hell and if you don't fight like Hell, you're not going to have a country anymore".[42]: 01:11:44 He said the protesters would be "going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country".[219] Trump also said, "you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated".[216][217]
Trump denounced Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), saying, "We've got to get rid of the weak Congresspeople, the ones that aren't any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world".[220] He called upon his supporters to "fight much harder" against "bad people"; told the crowd that "you are allowed to go by very different rules," said that his supporters were "not going to take it any longer"; framed the moment as the last stand, suggested that Pence and other Republican officials put themselves in danger by accepting Biden's victory; and told the crowd he would march with them to the Capitol (although he did not do so).[216][217] In addition to the twenty times he used the term "fight," Trump once used the term "peacefully," saying, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard".[217]
During Trump's speech, his supporters chanted "Take the Capitol," "Taking the Capitol right now," "Invade the Capitol," "Storm the Capitol" and "Fight for Trump".[221][222] The New York Times placed the fall of the first barriers at 1:03 p.m.[223] Before Trump had finished speaking at 1:12 p.m., an estimated eight thousand supporters had already begun moving up the National Mall, with some shouting that they were storming the Capitol.[45] After completing his speech, Trump went back to the White House on the presidential motorcade, arriving at 1:19 p.m.[224] At some point afterward, Trump went to the Oval Office and started watching news coverage of the attack.[224]
Golyóálló üveg mögött hergelte a népet: "fight like hell", meg hasonló kifejezések. A követői engedelmeskedtek ennek. Képes lett volna szerintem lecsillapítani is a tömeget, hogy ne legyen erőszak, a fanatikusai hallgatnak rá. De nem ez volt a célja.