CNN's John Berman prodded a Donald Trump's spokesperson Thursday to explain why the former president referred to the Jan. 6 riot as a "day of love."
The Republican presidential nominee took part Wednesday night in a town hall where he was confronted by a Republican voter from Florida who said he would not support him in the election because of his responses to the Capitol insurrection, coupled by his action during the Covid pandemic.
Trump insisted what had transpired on Jan. 6 was "love and peace, and some people went to the Capitol, and a lot of strange things happened there."
"Is Donald Trump confused?" Berman said. "Does he literally not understand the facts or is he deliberately trying to spread misinformation?"
Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said the ex-president was correct — and that his claims are uncontroversial.
"This has been litigated and re-litigated," she said. "The president had said for his supporters to protest peacefully and patriotically, and, as a matter of fact, Nancy Pelosi's daughter, who was filming her ..., caught Nancy Pelosi saying on camera that she took full responsibility for not taking action on that day."
The former House speaker is shown in footage recorded that day questioning why the National Guard was not present at the Capitol before Trump supporters crossed barriers and went inside, saying she should have pressed law enforcement officials harder to be prepared for violence. Only the president had the authority to order them to respond.
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"I am quoting, I'm quoting Donald Trump in his old answers," Berman said, interrupting Alvarez as she tried to pivot to blaming Kamala Harris for inflation.
"Donald Trump in this town hall called it a day of love when he was given the opportunity to win back that Republican voter's vote there, he called it a day of love, which demonstrably – it just wasn't. It wasn't love on the Capitol when the rioters were breaking into the Capitol building."
"My question is: Is he deliberately misstating the facts here or does he not understand them?" Berman added.
"I already answered that question," Alvarez replied, "and what I will say, as someone who was there with the president at the Univision town hall doing the behind the scenes with him, is that at the end of the event this was a crowd of over 100 audience members who are vetted by Univision, who were truly undecided voters.
" ... At the end, many of them came up to President Donald Trump, swarmed him, said that they had been convinced to vote for him."
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