‘Our country would have been a different place!’: Trump defends efforts to pressure Pence to overturn election results

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Donald Trump has defended his actions on the day of January 6 and those running up to it – claiming the country would have been “very different” if he had secured a second term.

As the Jan 6 committee held its eighth presentation, focussing on the 187 minutes between the former president delivering his speech near the White House and putting out a video message urging his supporters to go home, Mr Trump claimed he had done nothing wrong.

“Mike Pence told me, and everybody else, there was nothing he could do about the Electoral Vote Count – it was etched in stone. But if so, how come the Democrats and RINOs are working so hard to make sure there is nothing a VP can do,” he said in a statement released via his Truth Social platform.

“This was a major event, because everybody ganged up and said that Mike had no choice, he could not send the slates back to the States (which is all I suggested he do) for possible retabulation and correction based on largescale Voter Fraud and Irregularities.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly lied about the result of the election, claiming he only lost becuase it had been rigged, something even the president’s own administration said was not true.

He claimed had he been given a seond term “we would have no inflation, inexpensive gasoline, be energy dominant, have no war or largescale death with Russia and Ukraine (this conflict never would have happened), would have left Afghanistan on same timetable, but with dignity and strength, and would have kept Bagram Air Base, not had dead soldiers, taken out all American hostages, and would not have given the Taliban $85 billion worth of first-class military equipment”.

He added: “Our Country would have been a different place!”