In a speech just before the riot at the US Capitol on Wednesday, outgoing President Donald Trump told his supporters at a rally that they would have to “fight much harder.”
Trump's "Save America Rally" included the president telling supporters to "stop the steal" of the election, urging them to head to the Capitol to demonstrate against Congress certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
Trump spoke at the event for nearly an hour at the Ellipse, a park near the White House.
After he spoke, thousands of attendees, many of them without masks, marched toward Capitol Hill as federal law enforcement vehicles raced to beat them there.
Among the crowd's battle cries was: "Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!"
Here are the highlights of what the president said at the rally, which is a central focus of the impeachment case being prepared against him by House Democrats for inciting the deadly riot.
Walk down to the Capitol
“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder…. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we're going to walk down and I'll be there with you. We're going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol. And we're going 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. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Republicans have to get tougher
“The Republicans have to get tougher. You're not going to have a Republican party if you don't get tougher. They want to play so straight; they want to play so serious the United States, the Constitution doesn't allow me to send them back to the states. Well, I would say yes, it does because the Constitution says you have to protect our country, and you have to protect our Constitution, and you can't vote on fraud, and fraud breaks up everything, doesn't it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do, and I hope he doesn't listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that he's listening to.
Blacklist on social media
“And just like the radical left tries to blacklist you on social media--every time I put out a tweet that's--even if it's totally correct, totally correct, I get a flag. I get a flag. And they also don't let you get out. You know, on Twitter, it's very hard to come on to my account. It's very hard to get out a message. They don't let the message get out nearly like they should.”
Indoctrinating children
“They shadow ban you and it should be illegal. I've been telling these Republicans get rid of Section 230.
“And for some reason, Mitch and the group, they don't want to put it in there and they don't realize that that's going to be the end of the Republican Party as we know it, but it's never going to be the end of us. Never.
“Let them get out. Let-- let the weak ones get out. This is a time for strength. They also want to indoctrinate your children in school by teaching them things that aren't so. They want to indoctrinate your children. It's all part of a comprehensive assault on our democracy and the American people are finally standing up and saying no. This crowd is, again, a testament to it.”
Are you a citizen?
“Are you a citizen? You're not allowed to ask that question. Because they want to steal the election.”
“The radical left knows exactly what they were doing. They are ruthless and it's time that somebody did something about it. And Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our constitution and for the good of our country.”
Drain the Washington swamp
“Together we will drain the Washington swamp, and we will clean up the corruption in our nation's Capitol. We have done a big job on it, but you think it's easy; it's a dirty business. It's a dirty business. We have a lot of bad people out there. Despite everything we have been through looking out all over this country and seeing fantastic crowds, although this I think is our all-time record.”
We will never give up, we will never concede
“We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favourite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal. …
“You will have an illegitimate president. That is what you will have, and we can’t let that happen. These are the facts that you won’t hear from the fake news media. It’s all part of the suppression effort. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to talk about it. …
“We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
We are going to the Capitol
“Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. … We are going to the Capitol, and we are going to try and give — the Democrats are hopeless, they are never voting for anything, not even one vote, but we are going to try — give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re try — going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”