DONALD TRUMP has spoken to the press for the first time since the the Capitol Building riots in Washington D.C. last week.
He refused to accept responsibility for the actions of his supporters, who stormed Congress in an attempt to prevent the House from certifying Joe Biden's election victory, leading to the deaths of five people, including one police officer.
When asked what role he thought he played in the violence, Trump distanced himself from taking blame, stressing that his words were "totally appropriate".
He said: "So if you read my speech, and many people have done and I've seen it both in the papers and in the media and on television, it's been analysed and people thought what I said was totally appropriate.
"And if you look at what other people have said, politicians at a high level, about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was a real problem."
Trump went on to stress to his supporters that during the transfer of power to Biden's administration later this month,"we want no violence, never violence, we want absolutely no violence."
He also addressed the various social media bans he'd received in the past few days, criticising the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for censoring him.
"I think that 'big-tech' is doing a horrible thing to our country, and I believe it's going to be catastrophic.
"They're dividing [us] and divisive and they're showing something I've been predicting for a long time. They've made a terrible mistake and it's leading others to do the same thing, and it's causing a lot of problems."
Trump later turned his attention to the Democrats' attempt to impeach him for the second time, calling it a "continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics."
"On the impeachment ... it's ridiculous, it's absolutely ridiculous. This impeachment is causing tremendous anger, and they're doing it, and it's really a terrible thing that they're doing.
"For [senior Democrats] Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it's causing tremendous danger to our country."
