Trump Called Jan. 6 A 'Beautiful Day.' His Lawyer Calls It A 'Riot.'

Donald Trump has called Jan. 6, 2021, a beautiful day and said that the people who committed violence and destruction at the U.S. Capitol are patriots and peaceful people.

But the former presidents own attorney offered a starkly different description of that days events to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, amid arguments about whether Trump should be barred from the 2024 presidential ballot for instigating an insurrection.

This description of events from the person representing Trump goes against how Trump himself has consistently described Jan. 6 to his fans as a calm day when his supporters flocked to a Stop the Steal rally in Washington, with love in their heart because they believed the 2020 election was rigged.

This was a riot. It was not an insurrection, said Trump lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, a former Texas solicitor general who is arguing Trumps case in front of the high court.

The events were shameful, criminal, violent all of those things but did not qualify as insurrection as that term is used in Section 3, Mitchell added, referring to Article 14, Section 3 of the Constitution, which bars those who have engaged in insurrection from holding office.

How the Supreme Court justices end up interpreting that section will determine whether Trump can remain on the ballot, following a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in December that disqualified him from running.

For an insurrection, there needs to be an organized, concerted effort to overthrow the government of the U.S. through violence, Mitchell told liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who explained that Colorados high court found that Trumps supporters engaged in an insurrection by violently attempting to halt the count of electoral votes.

Trump and his allies have pushed back on descriptions of Jan. 6 as an insurrection.

The crowd was unbelievable, and I mentioned the word love. The love in the air Ive never seen anything like it, Trump said in a July 2021 Fox News interview, calling the rioters patriots and peaceful.

At a CNN town hall in May 2023, Trump said that Jan. 6 was a beautiful day while downplaying his involvement.

Trump has also vowed to release the people jailed in connection with the attack who are awaiting trial and to pardon the people convicted of crimes that day. The Justice Department has charged  more than 1,300 people in connection with the attack, with roughly 750 sentenced, as of early January.

They ought to release the J6 [Jan. 6] hostages. Theyve suffered enough, Trump said on this years anniversary of the attack while campaigning in Iowa.

At the CNN town hall, Trump said that he would pardon a large portion of the rioters.

Im inclined to pardon many of them, he said. I cant say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control.