Donald Trump has defended supporters who threatened to 'hang' then-Vice President Mike Pence during the Capitol riot on January 6 because they were angry about voter fraud allegations in a newly released audio clip of an interview.
During a taped interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl, obtained by Axios, Trump can be heard playing down the chanted threats, saying 'the people were very angry.'
In the clip, Karl initially asks whether Trump was worried about his Vice President.
'No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape,' Trump replies during the interview for Karl's book 'Betrayal' at Mar-a-Lago, conducted on March 18. 'No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape.'
'Because you heard those chants — that was terrible,' Karl replies. 'He could have — well, the people were very angry,' Trump says.
'They were saying "hang Mike Pence,"' Karl pushes.
'Because it's common sense, Jon. It's common sense that you're supposed to protect,' Trump replies. 'How can you — if you know a vote is fraudulent, right?' he says, touting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.
'How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?'
The chants were heard as Trump's supporters laid siege to the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 following a rally held by the then-president outside the White House, forcing those inside the building - including Pence - to evacuate.
The new audio was released after a federal appeals court gave Trump lawyers until November 30 to argue that White House documents from January 6 should not be handed to the Democrat-led committee investigating the riot.
His former chief of staff Mark Meadows has also been threatened with contempt of court charges if he doesn't respond to request to testify before the panel by 10am on Friday.
Pictured: Former President Donald Trump is seen in a recent video on Veteran's day. It was revealed today that Trump defended his supporters who threatened to 'hang' then-Vice President Mike Pence during the Capitol riots on January 6
Pictured: Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preside over a Joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 Electoral College results after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol earlier in the day on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 (file photo)
Pictured: A noose is seen having been put up by supporters of then-President Donald Trump outside the US Capitol building on January 6, as other stormed the building following a rally held by Trump calling for the 2020 election results to be overturned. It has been revealed that Trump defended calls to 'hang' his Vice President Mike Pence by his supporters at the riots
Despite no evidence to back his claims, Trump is heard telling Karl 'top constitutional scholars' he has spoken to agreed that Pence should not have ratified President Joe Biden's election victory, which he was in the process of doing when the mob attacked.
'Anybody I spoke to — almost all of them at least pretty much agree, and some very much agree with me — because he's passing on a vote that he knows is fraudulent,' Trump says in the audio clip.
'How can you pass a vote that you know is fraudulent? Now, when I spoke to him, I really talked about all of the fraudulent things that happened during the election.
'I didn't talk about the main point, which is the legislatures did not approve — five states,' Trump says. 'The legislatures did not approve all of those changes that made the difference between a very easy win for me in the states, or a loss that was very close, because the losses were all very close.'
Pictures from the January 6 insurrection showed thousands of MAGA supporters outside the Capitol building, while others broke through the defences and rampaged through its halls.
Outside, gallows had been erected west of the Capitol with the chants of 'hang Mike Pence' being heard after he rejected the false claims by Trump and others that the Vice President had the power to overturn the election results.
Trump and Pence are on track to run against each other for the GOP nomination in 2024, amid suggestions that their relationship soured after January 6.
The audio segment is just a small 30-second clip from a wider 90-minute interview, with more from the discussion expected to air on Sunday on ABC's 'This Week'.
The insurrection came after the Trump campaign held a 'Save America' rally on the Ellipse outside the White House on January 6, which saw the president speak for over an hour to a large crowd of MAGA supporters.
Trump has since faced accusations that he and other MAGA figures used the 'Save America' rally to rile up his supporters ahead of the riot.
MAGA protesters were told by Trump and his allies to head to Capitol Hill where lawmakers were scheduled to confirm Biden's presidential victory.
The chants were heard as Trump's supporters laid siege to the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6 following a rally held by the then-president outside the White House (pictured, file photo), forcing those inside the Capitol building - including Pence - to evacuate
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021
In the hours that followed, a violent mob stormed the Capitol, breaking through police barricades and smashing windows to enter the building.
Five people were killed as a result of the riots. One female Trump supporter, US Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead by Capitol Police as she tried to climb through a window.
Another person died from a drug overdose and three others from natural causes. Meanwhile, 138 Capitol police officers were injured and four have since gone on to commit suicide.
The interview between Trump and Karl was for the writer's new book, 'Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show' (pictured)
Lawmakers were forced to go into hiding for several hours as Capitol police grappled to take back control while the mob rioted in the Senate and House, invaded Nancy Pelosi's office and looted items.
At least 600 people have been charged in connection with the capitol riots so far, including members from far-right anti-government group the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters.
Earlier this week, Karl claimed that Mike Pence was hiding in the 'bowels of the Capitol' - a loading dock in underground parking garage - as rioters breached security on January 6.
Karl claimed on Stephen Colbert's The Late Show on Tuesday that Pence had been hiding with a White House photographer, who took photos of the bizarre five hours that the vice president was in hiding.
'I got ahold of the photographer, saw all of the photographs - by the way, it is wild to see - he was in a loading dock in an underground parking garage, beneath the Capitol complex, no place to sit, no desk, no chairs.'
'With his family, this is the vice president of the US. He's like holed up in a basement,' Karl continued.
A supporter of President Donald Trump carries a Confederate battle flag on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol near the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses, in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021 (file photo)
The reporter was promoting his new book, 'Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show' that releases on Tuesday.
'They refused to let me publish the photographs but I have a suspicion the January 6 Committee is going to want to see those photos,' Karl said. 'Those aren't his photos, we paid for those photos.'
Karl said that one of the images depicted Pence's chief of staff Marc Short showing the vice president his phone, where President Trump had tweeted that Pence 'didn't have the courage' to overturn the election.
Pence was removed from the Senate chamber at 2:14 p.m., according to video footage from that day. He was hidden in a room nearby, with his wife Karen and daughter Charlotte.
Trump sent his tweet at 2:24 p.m.
'Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,' he wrote.
At 2:26 p.m., Pence was moved again - this time from the room he was in near the Senate chamber to a more secure location in the Capitol complex.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was hiding in the 'bowels of the Capitol' - a loading dock in underground parking garage - as rioters breached security on Jan. 6, ABC's Jonathan Karl has claimed
The rioters had broken into the Capitol at 2:11 p.m., prompting the removal of Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was presiding in the House.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is lashing out against ABC News' chief Washington reporter on Monday after an excerpt from the journalist's new book detailed allegations of a stunning stand-off between the former president and the very political party that got him to the White House.
'ABC Non News and 3rd rate reporter Jonathan Karl have been writing fake news about me from the beginning of my political career,' Trump said.
'Just look at what has now been revealed about the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It was a made up and totally fabricated scam and the lamestream media knew it. It just never ends!'
The confrontation reportedly took place on January 20, his last day in office, according to an excerpt from the new book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl.
A furious Trump told the Republican National Committee chair that he was 'done' with the GOP and would start a new party- adding that Republicans would 'lose forever' without him.
'This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me,' he reportedly said.
Trump told Karl the idea he wanted to start a new party was 'bulls**t,' the author wrote. 'You mean I was going to form another party or something?...Oh, that is bulls**t, it never happened,' the ex-president reportedly said.
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