The Washington Post is refusing to publish former President Trump’s response to a recent report on the January 6 Capitol riot. After the Washington Post published its investigative series on the riot, Trump offered a rebuttal that WaPo claims are riddled with lies and exaggerations.
On Monday, WaPo published its three-part series on the riot. The publication says the reports are based on interviews with more than 200 individuals, internal law reports, and court documents. A Trump spokesman, Taylor Budowich, gave WaPo a lengthy statement from former President Trump, however, only parts of the response will be published.
The Hill reports:
The Post noted that Budowich said the former president “greatly objected” to all of the newspaper’s findings, dismissing it as “fake news” and describing people who carried out violence at the Capitol that day as “agitators not associated with President Trump.”
The full statement the Post decided not to include also stated the 2020 presidential election was rigged, an assertion that has been widely debunked by government officials and office holders from both parties.
The Post’s investigation examined the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 incident. It said Trump, his legal representatives and his political allies pushed misleading claims about electoral fraud that contributed to the events of Jan. 6. It also looked at the extent to which law enforcement officials failed to adequately prepare for the attack on the Capitol Complex.
Many Trump critics have claimed that Trump’s continued push that the 2020 election as rigged helped lead to the riot.
“The media’s obsession with the January 6th protest is a blatant attempt to overshadow a simple fact: there is no greater threat to America than leftist journalists and the Fake News, which has avoided a careful examination of the fraudulent 2020 election,” a portion of the statement from Budowich that the Post did publish reads. “The media, just like the Democrats, do not want to see secure and honest elections. Instead of reporting the facts, outlets like the Washington Post sow division, hate, and lies, like it is doing with this story.”
Recent polls reveal Americans are still divided over the result of the 2020 election and if the election was conducted unfairly, with over a third saying the results should have been overturned.
