Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday insisted that former President Donald Trump bears no responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and that the White House staff was "horrified by the violence" as the events transpired.
"At the beginning of the day before everyone went to the rally, everyone was expecting peace," McEnany, who was officially announced as a Fox News contributor during her interview with "The Faulkner Focus" host Harris Faulkner, commented. "We had been to hundreds of rallies. I'd probably been to hundreds at this point. Certainly many dozens. They were nothing but peaceful events. We expected that day to be the same."
But, she said it was a "very hard, difficult day in the White House" as the day went on, and that there was a "synonymous feeling, completely a feeling that everyone felt, just completely condemning the actions of that day."
But Trump, she added, bears no responsibility.
"These rioters, if they were so inspired by what the president was saying, they left the speech early because reportedly they showed up at the Capitol before the end of his speech and then they did the exact opposite of what he said," McEnany insisted.
The protesters, she added, "did not represent our movement" but are the "opposite of our movement, which is what I said at the podium and what President Trump has said and will repeat."
McEnany further commented that she can "only speak to the conversations" she had on that day about the timeline and the call for the National Guard, but there was a "unitary focus on peace" and making sure all resources were available to the Capitol Police.
"The sense I got from every conversation I had was sending help immediately as soon as possible and even President Trump said on Sunday evening I offered 10,000 National Guard (troops) and they should have taken them," said McEnany. "He knew it would be a big event and he wanted peace."
She also discussed Trump's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, his first public appearance since leaving office, and said everything he said "strikes at the very heart as to what made this movement pro-family, pro-worker. He changed the Republican party forever, no doubt."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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