Audience members at a town hall hosted by the largest Spanish-language network in the United States, Univision, did not hide their reactions to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's comments on the violent riot he urged his supporters to take part in on January 6, 2021—with several voters appearing perplexed as the former president called the attack on the Capitol a "day of love."
Ramiro González, a construction worker based in Tampa, Florida, said he voted for Trump in the past and was formerly registered as a Republican, but told the former president that his "action and inaction" regarding January 6 was "a little disturbing."
"What happened during January 6, and the fact that you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol," said González.
Trump gave a speech in Washington D.C. on January 6 and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol, where members of Congress were certifying President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.
The day followed weeks of lies and legal challenges from the Trump campaign and the then-president's allies, who insisted that the election had been rigged, illegal votes had been counted, and voting machines had been hacked, and demanded recounts in several states—none of which found evidence of the claims.
In his answer to González, Trump suggested that his repeated lies about the security of the election had nothing to do with the attempted insurrection that took place on January 6.
"You had hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington," said Trump. "They didn't come because of me, they came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election."
Univision's camera panned over a section of the audience as Trump replied to González, showing one woman visibly shocked as the former president claimed "no one was killed" in the riot—right after he mentioned the death of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter who has fatally shot at the Capitol. Officials have linked five deaths to the attack.
González also appeared incredulous after Trump called January 6 "a day of love."
"This was the first attack on the Capitol in history by U.S. citizens and he calls it a day of love," said U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). "I was there. It was a day of terror. Not just for us who were there. But for the American people. We CANNOT let this guy be back in the White House again."
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign posted a compilation video of other reactions from audience members as Trump spoke about the climate and his environmental policies.
Audience members at the town hall were credited by some political observers as giving a "masterclass" in questioning the former president. A farmworker named Jorge Velásquez asked about Trump's plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and pointed out that doing so would severely impact the agricultural labor force, asking how the plan would affect food prices.
"This Univision audience asked the best questions of the campaign," said progressive news outlet The Tennessee Holler on social media.
