‘The most beautiful day’: Donald Trump says Jan. 6 was about ‘love,’ but also about ‘hate’

Donald Trump still believes the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was misrepresented.

Rather than being the result of rage and chaos, he said, it was mostly about the “love” and “unity” its participants felt for their country. But it was also about the “hatred” they felt over his unsubstantiated claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

“Jan. 6 was a very interesting day, because they don’t report it properly,” he told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a pre-recorded interview streamed online during the first GOP presidential debate Wednesday.

“People that were in that crowd that day, a very small group of people, went down (to the Capitol), and there were a lot of scenarios that we can talk about. But people in that crowd said it was the most beautiful day they ever experienced.”

He continued, “There was love and unity. I have never seen such spirit and such passion and such love. And I’ve also never seen simultaneously — and from the same people — such hatred of what they’ve done to our country.”

More than 2,000 supporters of the former President entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many defaced the building and stole from it. Others erected makeshift gallows outside while calling for then-Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged for refusing to block the election’s certification.

Five people died from injuries they sustained in the riot, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and four Trump supporters.

Asked whether he believes the Capitol siege and unrest across the country before and after it suggest America could be headed toward a second civil war, Trump did not dismiss the idea.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I can say this, there’s a level of passion I’ve never seen. There’s a level of hatred that I’ve never seen. And that’s probably a bad combination.”