Donald Trump took nearly
an hour to shoot a video following the Capitol riots on January 6, new footage shown
by the House select committee revealed Thursday. Raw footage of the video
showed Trump first distracted by someone behind him and subsequently went on to
do multiple takes of the speech. As he speaks, Trump deviates from the script provided
to him written explicitly to quell the Capitol riots and send the rioters back
home.

The House select
committee probing the Capitol riots said Trump’s final speech bore very little
resemblance to the speech his writers wrote and he approved. By altering the
script, Trump extended support to the rioters instead of denouncing them,
according to the House committee.

Also Read | January 6 hearings: Fox News snubbed prime time show, again

His edits to the
speech came at the very top when he said: “We had an election that was stolen
from us,” words which reportedly did not feature in the speech prepared by his
speech writers. Trump repeated the assertion at the end of the video. Asked if
the speech was completely off the cuff, former assistant to President Donald
Trump said, “To my knowledge it was off the cuff.”

Documents obtained
by the Jan 6 committee indicates the speech he was supposed to deliver was: “I
urge all my supporters to do exactly what 99% of them have already been doing –
express their passions and opinions PEACEFULLY.”

Also Read | Donald Trump’s tweets, before, during and after the Capitol Hill riots

“My supporters
have a right to make their voices heard, but make no mistake – NO ONE should be
using violence or threats of violence to express themselves. Especially at the
US Capitol. Let’s respect our institutions. Let’s all do better. I am asking
you to leave the Capitol Hill region NOW and go home in a peaceful way.”

On the very next
day, January 7, 2021, the same issue recurred. Donald Trump was supposed to
deliver a speech to ease tensions.

The raw footage of
his speech went as follows:

“You do not
represent our movement. You do not represent our country. You will pay. And if
you broke the law…” At this point Trump stops and says, “I don’t want to say, ‘The
election is over.’ I’ll just say, ‘Congress has certified the results’ without
saying, ‘The election is over.’”