Former President Donald Trump confused former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his opponent in the Republican presidential primary, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at a rally in New Hampshire on Friday. It seemed like there was.
In a speech in Concord, President Trump said Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, was responsible for the collapse of security at the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. President Trump previously accused Pelosi of refusing to provide support to the National Guard before the riot.
In his speech, President Trump said that Haley's crowd size at a campaign event in the Granite State was small compared to his, before referring to the crowd size at his own rally on January 6, 2021. did.
“By the way, they never reported on the Jan. 6 crowd, Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, they – they knew they destroyed all the information and all the evidence. All of that was taken down and destroyed for various reasons, including Nikki Haley being in charge of security. We offered to send in 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard. So, Whatever they wanted, they denied it. I want to talk about it, but they are very dishonest people,” President Trump said.
President Trump says Nikki Haley is 'probably' not his running mate
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump points to a supporter at the end of a campaign rally at the Atkinson Country Club on January 16, 2024 in Atkinson, New Hampshire. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
President Trump's repeated references to Haley appear to be erroneous references to Pelosi. In September, President Trump said in an interview with NBC News that Pelosi was “responsible for January 6th.”
“Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She refused to send in 10,000 soldiers. If she hadn't refused to send in soldiers, we wouldn't have had January 6th,” he told NBC. He spoke to “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker in a rare interview. Down interview at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
President Trump declined to say whether he called the military or law enforcement that day, saying, “I was very well behaved and did a very good job. Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 soldiers… If she didn't do it…” Welker challenged President Trump, saying Pelosi does not have the authority to serve as commander in chief.
Pelosi's office told Fox News Digital at the time that Trump's claims were “completely fabricated.”
President Trump claims Pelosi denied 10,000 troops before Capitol riot: 'She is responsible for January 6th'
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks to supporters gathered during her final stop before the Iowa Republican caucuses in Newton, Iowa, Monday, January 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Meg Kinard)
The decision to call the National Guard to the Capitol will be made by the so-called Capitol Police Board, which is made up of the House Sergeant-at-Arms, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and the architect of the Capitol. The committee decided not to call in the Guard by Jan. 6, but because the rioting had already begun, they eventually requested assistance, and troops arrived hours later, according to the Associated Press.
The House sergeant-at-arms reported to Ms. Pelosi, and the Senate sergeant-at-arms reported to Ms. Pelosi. Senator Mitch McConnell A Republican who was the Senate majority leader at the time.
Officers of the Board of Directors, together with the former; Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund Both sides have disputed each other's accounts of who called for the Guard and when. The armed police sergeant and police chief resigned immediately after the attack. A Democratic-led House committee on January 6 did not subpoena Pelosi.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Sund claimed that he made six requests for assistance before and during the attack on the Capitol, but each request was either denied or postponed. He claimed that he refused to deploy the National Guard because he was concerned about the “perspectives” of House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving to declare a state of emergency ahead of the demonstrations.
Nikki Haley says she doesn't want or need Christie's support
Left to right: Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley; Former President Donald Trump. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California) (Joe Radle/Getty Images | Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images | Dear DiPaspil/Getty Images)
Haley responded to the mix-up on Saturday at a campaign event in Keene, New Hampshire.
“President Trump was at a rally last night and keeps mentioning to me over and over again why I didn't provide security during the Capitol riot. Couldn't I have handled it better? I couldn't even handle it.'' January 6th in Washington, DC! I wasn't in the office at the time,” Haley told the crowd.
“They say he was confused, he was talking about something else, he was talking about Nancy Pelosi. He mentioned me multiple times in that scenario,” she said. , presidential pressure that sparked concerns that Trump might not be able to cope “mentally.”
President Trump will turn 78 in June, but if he wins a second term as president, he will end his term in the White House at age 82. President Biden is currently 81 years old and will be 86 when he retires after his second term.
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Ms. Haley has previously called for mental competency tests for public officials over the age of 75. In September, he called the U.S. Senate “the most privileged nursing home in the country” and questioned whether Biden and Trump were fit for the job. They serve as presidents at different ages.
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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