Donald Trump is set to hold two campaign events in Iowa which coincide with the third anniversary of the January 6 attack.
The former president, the frontrunner in the GOP primary, will appear at rallies in Newton at 1 p.m. on January 6, 2024, before headlining an event in Clinton at 4 p.m. later that day, and shared details about the events on Truth Social.
Both rallies will take place ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus on January 15, where Trump holds a commanding lead over his Republican challengers. According to a recent NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, Trump has 51 percent first choice support from likely Iowa caucus-goers, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis behind on 19 percent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on 16 percent.
Trump’s campaign team made no mention of the dates of the two rallies coinciding with the January 6 attack when announcing their details. A mob of Trump supporters rioted and stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, while supporting the former president’s false 2020 election fraud claims.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images
More than 1,200 people have been charged in connection with the January 6 attack, including around 440 accused of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, 120 people charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, and four who admitted to a charge of seditious conspiracy.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the former president’s alleged criminal attempts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election and the events which led up to the January 6 attack.
Elsewhere, the states of Maine and Colorado have banned Trump from running for office after ruling that he violated the Constitution’s insurrection clause with his actions around the January 6 attack. Trump is appealing both decisions.
Thad Nearmyer, chair of the Jasper County, Iowa Republican Party, said he initially did not think anything of Trump holding rallies on the date of January 6.
“And then a little bit later it kind of occurred to me that that date has some significance,” Nearmyer told The Daily Beast.
Nearmyer added he believes the attack on the Capitol nearly three years ago “wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as it was made out to be.”
Trump’s office has been contacted for comment via email.
In a December statement announcing details of the rally at the DMACC Conference Center in Newton on January 6, 2024, Trump’s campaign team said the former president has “rolled back unnecessary job-killing regulations at a historic pace, including those that harmed Iowa’s farmers.
“His Administration cut 8 regulations for every new rule, including Barack Obama’s Waters of the United States rule that imposed federal restrictions on much of Iowa’s farmland. President Trump slashed the estate tax, or death tax, to allow Iowa farmers to keep farms in the family.”
While announcing the rally at the Clinton Middle School later that day, the campaign team added: “President Trump stood up to China like never before, rebalancing our trade relationship and bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars from China. When China targeted America’s farmers, President Trump provided $28 billion dollars in relief.
“President Trump oversaw record-low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and women.”
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