What public audio/video exists of Trump’s statements about the January 6 rioters and their chants?
Executive summary
Public, widely viewed audio and video of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, includes his live speech on the Ellipse that urged supporters to "fight" and to "walk down to the Capitol," an evening statement and video in which he expressed sympathy for rioters, and later public remarks and White House materials that both defend his language as urging peaceful protest and downplay the violence; these clips are archived across news outlets and were heavily used by investigators and critics alike [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting and official timelines also preserve on-the-ground audio of rioters chanting threats such as "Hang Mike Pence" and "Take the Capitol," which intersect with what Trump said that day and in later public remarks [1] [5].
1. The Ellipse speech: recorded exhortations and the key phrases
The best-known public video is Trump’s January 6 “Save America” rally speech on the Ellipse, which is preserved in footage showing him repeat baseless claims about the election, tell the crowd “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and say “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” lines that critics and prosecutors later highlighted as consequential [1] [2] [5]. That speech was carried live and remains widely available in news archives and was cited by the House select committee and numerous outlets as central to understanding his rhetoric that day [1] [5].
2. Evening video and statements: sympathy and tactical ambiguity
After the breach, Trump released a video and posted statements that evening which investigators and analysts have preserved and debated: he expressed sympathy—“I know your pain, I know you’re hurt”—and issued remarks that were characterized by some as justifying or downplaying the day’s actions; those recordings and tweets have been repeatedly cited in legal and journalistic accounts as part of the public record [3]. The public record shows he did not immediately and forcefully call the crowd to disperse in strong terms, and aides later testified about urging him to do so, which is documented in committee reporting and legal commentary [6].
3. Later public defenses, reinterpretations and official clips
In the years that followed, Trump and his allies repeatedly repackaged and reused portions of his remarks—arguing he meant “peacefully and patriotically” and describing January 6 as “a day of love” or portraying defendants as “hostages”—and the White House under his later administration even launched a website with curated clips presenting a pro-Trump narrative; those public materials and statements are part of the audiovisual record and were covered by multiple outlets [3] [4] [7] [8]. Opponents and some fact-checkers argue those clips are selective or out of context, and the White House’s own site has been critiqued as presenting a revisionist account of the day [4] [7].
4. On-the-ground audio of chants and threats that day
Journalists on the scene and later compilations include audio of rioters chanting “Take the Capitol,” “Storm the Capitol,” “Where is Pence?” and “Hang Mike Pence,” with some reporters and the select committee quoting individual rioters heard threatening violence; that audio is part of the evidentiary and public media record and has been widely cited in reporting about how chants and crowd momentum aligned with what Trump told supporters earlier [1] [5]. Legal analysts and the select committee used that interplay between crowd chants and presidential words in assessing whether his rhetoric foreseeably encouraged lawless action [1] [5] [6].
5. What investigators say, competing narratives, and limits of the public archive
Investigators, including the bipartisan House select committee, incorporated video and audio clips of Trump’s speeches and later statements into findings that the rally and his rhetoric were integral to the breach, while Trump allies and later White House materials dispute that framing and offer counter-edits and context suggesting peaceful intent—these opposing uses of the same public videos underscore a political contest over footage that is itself public and extensively archived [1] [9] [4]. The sources provided document the principal publicly available recordings but do not enumerate every clip or forensic compilation used in investigations, nor do they supply a single exhaustive catalog of all raw audio/video; therefore readers should treat cited mainstream archives and committee releases as the core public trove while recognizing that additional tapes and edits exist in court filings and news archives beyond the pieces summarized here [1] [3] [6].