Donald Trump’s latest play to attract undecided Latino votes did not go as planned.
Speaking at a Univision town hall on Wednesday, Trump was confronted with serious questions by Republicans and former Republicans who had not yet decided if they would support him in a few weeks.
But one question from Ramiro González, a 56-year-old construction worker from Tampa who had de-registered from the Republican Party, really seemed to throw him.
“I want to give you the opportunity to try and win back my vote,” González said. “Your action and maybe inaction, during your presidency and maybe the last few years, sort of, was a little disturbing to me.… What happened during January 6, and the fact that you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capital.”
Trump then launched into his usual diatribe about the events of the day, peeling himself away from the fact that thousands of his supporters had traveled to Washington that day to hear him speak before they were incited to storm the Capitol.
“You had hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington. They didn’t come because of me, they came because of the election—they thought the election was a rigged election, and that’s why they came,” Trump said. “Some of those people went down to the Capitol. I said ‘peacefully and patriotically,’ nothing done wrong at all, nothing done wrong.”
But that’s when Trump completely stopped making sense.
“Action was taken, strong action,” Trump said. “Ashley Babbitt was killed. Nobody was killed.
“There were no guns down there, we didn’t have guns, the others had guns,” Trump said, apparently complaining that the Capitol Police were armed before quickly attempting to correct that he had simultaneously referred to himself and his rioting supporters as a collective unit.
Watch the reaction of one of the members of the audience when Trump says no one was killed on January 6th but also says Ashli Babbitt was killed pic.twitter.com/VKFjIOIIuU
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 17, 2024
The entire interaction didn’t go over well with other audience members, who were seen twisting their faces with concern and disgust while the former president drew out his response. And a later comment, in which Trump referred to January 6 as a “day of love,” pushed González to furrow his brow.
The Univision town hall was nothing like the Fox News one Trump participated in the day before, which featured softball questions from a small crowd of women who turned out to be Trump supporters—and whom the network had seemingly invited to offer a safe space for the Republican presidential nominee. Behind the scenes, some women openly admitted that they had received “personal invitations” from the network to appear.
