U.S. President Donald Trump, under pressure to resign after his supporters carried out a deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol last week, said there was tremendous anger about moves to impeach him but added he did not want violence.
“I want no violence,” Trump told reporters as he left for a trip to the border wall in Alamo, Texas.
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Trump denied responsibility for last week’s violence by defending his pre-riot remarks to protesters at a rally near the White House.
“People thought what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.
While members of Congress counted Electoral College votes at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Trump held a rally in Washington in which he repeated false claims of election fraud.
“We will never give up, we will never concede,” Trump told supporters at a campaign-style protest rally near the White House.
“After this, we’re going to walk down there, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down… to the Capitol and we are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” he said.
He criticized impeachment moves by Democratic lawmakers.
“This impeachment is causing tremendous anger and they’re doing it, and it’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing,” Trump said. He added that the move to impeach him, on a charge of inciting insurrection over the Capitol attack, was a continuation of the “witch hunt” against him.
Trump would become the first U.S. president to be impeached twice if the House of Representatives votes in favor of impeachment on Wednesday.