Ari Fleischer tells Sean Hannity that the problem with Trump on January 6 is that he should have scheduled the rally for a different date

Ari Fleischer tells Sean Hannity that the problem with Trump on January 6 is that he should have scheduled the rally for a different date

Ari Fleischer tells Sean Hannity that the problem with Trump on January 6 is that he should have scheduled the rally for a different date
Audio file

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Now, if you really cared about getting to the bottom of January 6 and not just bludgeoning Donald Trump because he had a rally and had beliefs that you disagreed with, doesn't sound like the guy who's trying to organize a rally if he's authorizing troops to protect the Capitol or organizing a riot, rather.

ARI FLEISCHER (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): None of what you said surprises me, Sean, and I spent 17 years on Capitol Hill, and the motto on Capitol Hill is, we're the people's house. And the idea of calling up troops to guard the people's house is just anathema to Nancy Pelosi and to the leaders in the Congress. They would just think that that means the American people are enemy and we can't do that. So I can easily see them saying, no, no, no, the optics – it would look bad. We're not going to ring the Capitol with troops. And I'm sure that was what Pelosi was thinking. And she rejected the advice of the police, the people who could have protected if they had more resources. And it doesn't surprise me that Trump would have sent more troops there, knowing his opposition to the violence that took place in the summer of 2020.

Now, look, I've long said I wished Trump called that rally on a different day. It's one thing to exercise free speech and peacefully protest objectively election results all you want. That is absolutely fair game. It just shouldn't have been done the same day as the vote. I just think caution would have said put it on a different day. Nevertheless, there still is no excuse to riot, but there was no excuse for the Capitol not to have sufficient guard.

HANNITY: All right, quick break. More with Ari Fleischer, by the way, his new book soon to be released: Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, Bias Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong.