Trump Expresses sympathy, understanding for insurrectionists

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At a March 18 sit-down interview with Trump for the upcoming book, Karl asked the former president about a report from The New York Times that on the morning of Jan. 6, Trump pressured Pence with a crude phone call, reportedly telling his vice president, "You can be a patriot or you can be a p****."

‘I wouldn't dispute it," Trump said to Karl.

"Really?" Karl responded.

"I wouldn't dispute it," Trump repeated.

Hours later, after rioters had attacked the Capitol and the building was being evacuated, rioters were heard shouting "Hang Mike Pence" as they left the complex. But Trump told Karl that he never contacted his vice president to check on his safety.

"No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape," Trump told Karl. "No, because I had heard he was in very good shape."

Pressed about the chants, Trump told Karl that Pence made a mistake in certifying the vote.

“He could have -- well, the people were very angry," Trump said. "If you know a vote is fraudulent, right, how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?" Trump said.

Asked by Karl if, had Pence done as Trump wanted, Trump would still be in the White House, Trump replied, "I think we would have won -- yeah."

Trump also couldn't say if he would ever forgive Pence for certifying the election -- a rare act of dissent from an otherwise loyal vice president.

"I don't know," Trump said. "Because I picked him. I like him, I still like him, but I don't know that I can forgive him."

And asked by Karl if Pence was on his shortlist for vice president should Trump run again in 2024, Trump wouldn't say.

If you feel like Trump and have any degree of sympathy for the people that were yelling “Hang Mike Pence” you have no moral right to criticize BLM and Anitifa rioters and any progressives that felt any degree of sympathy for them.

This isn't true at all, it's perfectly consistent to feel that the people who rioted at the capital were deluded but genuinely believed they were defending democracy and to feel like the people who responded to police abuse by looting and burning the property of people who had nothing to do with and their enablers in the media were doing a profound evil (or the reverse, it works either way). Where I get annoyed is when people try to warp the reality around what happened, "peaceful protests" when our own eyes can see the fires and looting, or "armed insurrection" when no one has been charged with a firearms violation or insurrection, just trespass and rioting, that crosses the line into gaslighting.

Yes, it was a coup, and the absence of weapons was almost certainly purposeful so Trump and friends could hide behind the lie that this was a peaceful, popular demonstration. So, no gas lighting; this was absolutely a coup.

LOL, they don't even need to gaslight you, you do it to yourself just fine. So, how did Trump and Co insure that all of those randos showed up unarmed? The nuttiest portion of the most heavily armed party in the most heavily armed country on Earth shows up to overthrow the state, but they leave the guns behind for the optics? You'd have to be truly delusional to buy that, but then we've well established that you don't let reality stop you when it comes to your political beliefs. It's like religion, it doesn't have to make sense if you just have faith.

Delusional is thinking Trump and company would work up militias, QAnon kooks, and white nationalists to riot at the capitol, yelling, "Hang Mike Pence!" and not have any intention of forcing a change in the electoral vote.
None of this was random. Trump and his people had been working hand-in-glove with right wing extremists from the start, going back even before the Unite The Right Rally. Note how no one brought guns to Charlottesville, either, yet right wingers not only committed unparalleled violence, but also murder. I'll remind you that the DOJ and congress is planning to conduct trials for Bannon and the rest of Trump's lackeys who had been determined to keep him in the White House.