Melania Trump on Monday broke her silence on last week’s mob attack on the Capitol, saying she ‘absolutely condemns the violence’ incited by her husband and calling for ‘healing’ as the couple prepares to leave office.
Five days after the attacked that resulted in five deaths, the first lady published a statement that acknowledged the deaths of her husband’s supporters before the deaths of two Capitol Police officers.
‘My heart goes out to: Air Force Veteran, Ashli Babbit, Benjamin Philips, Kevin Greeson, Rosanne Boyland, and Capitol Police Officers, Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood. I pray for their families comfort and strength during this difficult time,’ she wrote.
But in her 600-word essay published by the White House, she quickly turned the situation to herself, slamming the ‘salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me’ – a reference to reports she was conducting a photo shoot in the White House during the MAGA mob scene.
‘I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me – from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda. This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain,’ she wrote in the message entitled Our Path Forward.
The essay is filled with spelling errors (Babbit’s name was spelled wrong – it’s Babbitt) and grammar mistakes.
It also cast no blame for Wednesday’s riot on her husband, who, at a rally earlier that day had encouraged his supporters to march on Capitol Hill.
Melania Trump broke her silence on last week’s mob attack on the Capitol, saying she ‘absolutely condemns the violence’ incited by her husband
The first lady issued a 600-word statement called Our Path Forward which was published on the White House website early on Monday
Insurrection: Trump supporters invaded the Capitol on Wednesday shortly after the president had repeated his false claims of election fraud in a fiery speech near the White House
While Melania has largely stayed quiet during Donald Trump’s attempts to illegally reverse the election results, she has echoed the president’s misleading language of ‘counting legal votes’ and has not publicly acknowledged Joe Biden’s victory.
But she wrote in her latest message that ‘it has been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your first lady’, a tacit acknowledgement that her term is nearly over.
Biden takes the oath of office on January 20th.
It’s unclear what’s in store for Melania Trump after life in the White House. She has been reportedly looking at schools for son Barron in Florida but has made no indication she plans to keep up her ‘Be Best’ campaign or her work with the military once her husband leaves office.
The first lady has been spending her final days in the White House behind closed doors. She and her husband have rarely been seen since their return from Florida on December 31st, where they were spending the holidays at Mar-a-Lago.
Melania’s message was published early on Monday morning, three days after the president was permanently banned from Twitter – with Trump not showing his face since promising an orderly transition in a video message on Thursday.
And while Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump had appeared at a campaign rally Wednesday morning where the president whipped his supporters into a frenzy shortly before they besieged the Capitol, the first lady stayed out of sight during the day of chaos.
Two of her staff quit in protest of the president’s handling of the riots: her chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham and social secretary Anna Cristina ‘Rickie’ Niceta.
As a White House source told The Mail on Sunday that during Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol, the first lady was in the East Wing of the White House overseeing a photoshoot for a new coffee table book about presidential artifacts.
‘The heart of US government was under siege, our very democracy on the line, but Mrs Trump was calmly arranging porcelain figurines for the photographer,’ the source said, saying even the most loyal remaining Trump staffers were left ‘dumbfounded’ by her actions.
Aides even asked Melania to intercede on Wednesday, to force her husband to publicly decry the insurgency, but she refused.
‘She said nothing. She remained silent and carried on arranging a vase for the shoot. She checked out of this presidency and her marriage a long time ago.’
Additionally, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who worked in the East Wing in the early days of the administration and then wrote a memoir of her time there that painted Melania in an unflattering light, wrote in The Daily Beast over the weekend that she is ‘ashamed’ to have ever worked for the first lady.
‘I can’t believe how blind I was to the depth of her deception and lack of common decency,’ Wolkoff wrote.
Without mentioning those claims directly in her statement on Monday, Melania condemned what she said were ‘false misleading accusations on me’ from ‘people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda’.
The first lady said she was praying for the families of the four protesters and two Capitol Police officers who died in the hours and days after the attack.
She added that ‘our nation must heal in a civil manner’, after President Trump initially praised the mob as ‘very special’ but later condemned the violence.
‘Make no mistake about it, I absolutely condemn the violence that has occurred on our Nation’s Capitol. Violence is never acceptable,’ she wrote.
Trump supporters rampaged through the halls of the Capitol on a day of chaos which left America’s reputation as a beacon of democracy in tatters
The mob invasion of the Capitol brought a halt to what used to be an uncontroversial democratic ritual, the counting of electoral votes in Congress
She went on: ‘As an American, I am proud of our freedom to express our viewpoints without persecution. It is one of the paramount ideals which America is fundamentally built on.
‘Many have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect that right. With that in mind, I would like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause, and look at things from all perspectives.
‘I implore people to stop the violence, never make assumptions based on the color of a person’s skin or use differing political ideologies as a basis for aggression and viciousness. We must listen to one another, focus on what unites us, and rise above what divides us.
‘It is inspiring to see that so many have found a passion and enthusiasm in participating in an election, but we must not allow that passion to turn to violence.
‘Our path forward is to come together, find our commonalities, and be the kind and strong people that I know we are.’
A CNN report claimed that Melania, pictured, was supervising a White House photoshoot while a violent mob rampaged through the halls of Congress, but she appeared to deny this
Melania Trump attended her husband’s 2017 inauguration with Barack and Michelle Obama – but the outgoing president is boycotting Joe Biden’s swearing-in on January 20 this year
Praising Americans for their ‘strength and character’ during the pandemic, Melania also voiced thanks to the ‘millions of Americans who supported my husband and me over the past four years’.
In November, she had drawn ire by writing on Twitter that ‘every legal – not illegal – vote should be counted’, implying that the result hinged on illegal votes as President Trump was falsely claiming.
But she concluded Monday’s message by saying: ‘Most importantly, I ask for healing, grace, understanding, and peace for our great Nation
‘Every day let us remember that we are one Nation under God. God bless you all and God bless the United States of America.’ .
The call for unity comes amid a last-ditch attempt to remove Trump from office or at least to brand him with the disgrace of being the first president impeached twice.
Leading Democrats have said that the president should ‘not hold office one day longer’, even with his term due to expire next Wednesday.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to bring forward a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to declare Trump unfit for office under the 25th Amendment, removing him temporarily.
If Pence does not agree to invoke the amendment, ‘we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation’ in the House, Pelosi said.