Donald Trump returns to Capitol Hill for first time since January 6
The former president is meeting with House and Senate Republicans as he looks to reclaim the White House in November, ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports
Donald Trump has returned to Capitol Hill for the first time since he told a mob to "fight like hell" in the neighbourhood on January 6, 2021.
The former president is meeting with House and Senate Republicans as he looks to reclaim the White House in November.
He met with representatives to deliver remarks and discussing issues dominating his campaign, including mass immigration deportations, tax cuts and other priorities for a potential second term.
Speaking to reporters he called America a nation "in decline" and that he had met with like minded people who want "to make America great again".
Many potential priorities for a new White House administration are being formulated by a constellation of outside groups, though Trump has made clear he has his own agenda.
But the private meetings with House, and later in the afternoon the Senate, Republicans are infused with symbolism of Trump’s return as the US president who threatened the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
Trump appeared emboldened and enthusiastic on his arrival, despite the federal charges against him for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and his recent guilty verdict in an unrelated hush money trial involving adult film star Stormy Daniels.
As the party's presumptive nominee, Trump has successfully rid the Republican Party of critics, silenced most skeptics among his circles and enticed once-critical lawmakers into assisting with his campaign.
A packed room of House Republicans sang “Happy Birthday” to Trump in the private breakfast meeting at GOP campaign headquarters across the street from the Capitol.
“We’re excited to welcome President Trump back,” House Speaker Mike Johnson had said on Wednesday.
The Republican speaker was questioned on whether he asked Trump to respect the peaceful transfer of presidential power and commit to not repeating the actions of January 6. “Of course he respects that, we all do, and we've all talked about it, ad nauseum,” he said.
“It’s frustrating,” former US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn said.
He made his own unsuccessful run for Congress as a Maryland Democrat in the aftermath of January 6 when police engaged in hand-to-hand fighting to stop Trump supporters who stormed the building trying to overturn President Joe Biden's election.
Dunn spoke of the “irony” of Trump returning to the area and lawmakers now embracing him.
“It just shows the lack of backbone they have when they’re truly putting party and person over country," he said. "And it’s sad.”
Many of those who once stood up to Trump are long gone from office and the Republicans who remain appear to be increasingly enthusiastic about the possibility of him retaking the White House.
Biden’s team meanwhile is intensifying its focus on Trump and his role in the 2021 riot, according to CNN reports.
The campaign is using the presumptive Republican nominee’s Capitol Hill appearance to launch a new attack ad spotlighting the insurrection.
The campaign recently announced Biden’s endorsements from several January 6 police officers and now is unveiling a 30-second advert accusing Trump of inciting the events at the Capitol.
“There’s nothing more sacred than our democracy, but Trump’s ready to burn it all down,” a narrator says in the 30-second TV advert, which the president’s reelection campaign said would air in battleground states during local news broadcasts on Thursday.
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