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WILMINGTON, Delaware: Melania Trump said Monday (January 11) that she is “disappointed and disheartened” by the deadly riot on Capitol Hill last week by supporters of her husband. But by breaking his silence, he also lashed out at people who he said used the tragic event to spread “lewd gossip, unwarranted personal attacks and false and misleading accusations about me.”
The statement marked the first public comment by the first lady in the five days since a violent mob of Trump supporters, angered by Trump’s defeat and sparked by the president himself, stormed the Capitol on Wednesday and temporarily disrupted proceedings that certify that Democrat Joe Biden will be the next president will arrive on January 20.
“I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week,” she wrote in a White House blog post published before dawn. “I find it shameful that, around these tragic events, there have been lewd gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false and misleading accusations against me, from people who seek to be relevant and have an agenda.”
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The first lady did not say who she was referring to. Last week, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend of the first lady and a former White House aide, wrote an editorial accusing Mrs. Trump of being “an accessory to the destruction of America.”
Their friendship ended bitterly after Wolkoff, who had worked organizing the festivities for Trump’s inauguration in 2017, said the first lady did not defend her after questions about the inaugural spending, now the subject of investigations, were raised. federal and congressional.
In Monday’s post, the first lady said: “This time it is only about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain. “
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“Our nation must heal in a civilized way,” he wrote. “Make no mistake about it, I absolutely condemn the violence that has occurred on our nation’s Capitol. Violence is never acceptable. “
He also urged people to stop the violence, not to judge people by the color of their skin or to “use different political ideologies as the basis for aggression and cruelty.” She made no comment about her husband or his role in encouraging his supporters to go to the capitol.
The president has spent the weeks following the loss of the November presidential race spreading unsubstantiated claims that the vote was tainted by massive fraud and that the election was stolen from him. Numerous state and federal officials, including former US Attorney General William Barr, said there was no evidence of fraud on a massive enough scale to have affected the outcome.
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Trump encouraged his supporters to flock to Washington last Wednesday, the day set for Congress to certify the presidential vote. After addressing a rally near the White House where he encouraged his followers to keep fighting, they stormed the Capitol.
Five people were killed, including a Capitol police officer.
