What exact words did Donald Trump use in his January 6 2021 speech?
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Executive summary
The full, verbatim words Donald Trump used at the "Save America" rally on January 6, 2021 are available in multiple published transcripts and official records; those transcripts show he repeatedly called the 2020 election “stolen,” urged supporters to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” and said “I will be with you” while also saying the march would be “peacefully and patriotically” conducted [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and transcript collections expose disputes over selective editing of that speech — notably a BBC Panorama splice that combined lines almost an hour apart — prompting Trump to sue the BBC over how the speech was presented [4] [5].
1. What the primary transcripts say — the concrete record
Multiple independent outlets and archives have published full transcripts of Trump’s January 6 remarks at the Ellipse, which record core lines that have driven debate: repeated assertions the election was “stolen,” the line that “I know that everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” and the closing passages that include “So we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue — I love Pennsylvania Avenue — and we are going to the Capitol” and variants like “We’re going to walk down there and I’ll be with you” [1] [2] [3]. Those published transcripts are the baseline source for “what he said” and are cited by investigators, journalists and archives [2] [3].
2. The contested lines and how editing changed perception
The most contested moment centres on shorter, widely quoted snippets such as “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.” The Guardian and other outlets have reported that a BBC Panorama episode spliced together pieces of the speech from different times to produce a version that made those phrases appear contiguous; the BBC later acknowledged the edit as an “error of judgment,” apologized, and has been sued by Trump claiming deceptive editing [4] [5]. The dispute shows how editing choices — not necessarily the raw transcript — can materially alter public perception of exact wording and intent [5] [4].
3. Official compilation and archival sources
Government and archival repositories have published records of the speech and related January 6 materials. The National Security Archive at GWU and the U.S. Government Publishing Office collections include transcriptions and contextual notes that emphasize both the “peacefully and patriotically” line and the subsequent statement about walking to the Capitol, underlining the tension within the same speech between calls for a nonviolent march and language that listeners and editors later highlighted [2] [6]. Those official-document collections form the evidentiary backbone used by researchers and committees.
4. How journalists and fact-checkers present the wording
Major news organizations produced full transcripts for public reference; AP published a complete transcript and noted the impeachment and legal fallout tied to his words [3]. Factbase/rollcall also posted a line-by-line transcript of the Ellipse rally, documenting the crowd reactions and exact phrasing as reported live, which researchers use to cross-check edited broadcasts and selective clips [7] [1].
5. Legal and political consequences tied to phrasing
The exact wording mattered to impeachment managers, the January 6 select committee, and subsequent litigation. Trump’s language — both the “peacefully and patriotically” claim and the lines about walking to the Capitol and being “with you” — became focal points for arguments about incitement and intent. Separately, Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC over its edit underscores how stakeholders now litigate not only words but the presentation and montage of those words [4] [2].
6. Limitations, disputes and what available sources do not say
Available sources provide verbatim transcripts and document the BBC’s editing controversy, but available sources do not mention any definitive single-source authoritative audio that resolves every disputed splice beyond the published recordings and transcripts cited [5] [1]. Some claims about precisely which short phrases were contiguous in the raw audio vs. edited broadcasts are contested in media reporting and legal filings; readers should consult the primary transcript repositories (AP, Roll Call, National Security Archive, GPO) to compare line-by-line [3] [7] [2] [6].
7. Bottom line for readers seeking the “exact words”
If you want the unambiguous, line-by-line text attributed to Trump on January 6, 2021, consult the full transcripts published by AP, Roll Call/Factbase and archival collections [3] [1] [2]. If you want to judge how clips have been used or edited, compare those transcripts against broadcast footage and the BBC/Panorama comparison reporting to see where selective splicing changed how consecutive phrases appeared to viewers [5] [4].