DUP MP Ian Paisley has defended Donald Trump saying he doesn't believe that the President's speech before a mob stormed the US Capitol “provoked the rioters to break the law”.
Mr Paisley, who has described himself and Donald Trump as “good friends”, posed in a photograph with fellow DUP MPs holding a flag in public support for his re-election campaign.
East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson posted the picture of himself and party colleagues Mr Paisley and Paul Girvan smiling with their thumbs up behind a `Trump' flag in September.
The attendant caption penned by Mr Wilson read: "Keep America Great" - a reference to the then president's mantra `Make America Great Again'.
He went on to dismiss President-Elect Joe Biden as "a parrot for Irish nationalism and their falsehoods".
The Irish News asked the party for a comment on Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric which had preceded hours of rioting watched by across the world on live news streams on Wednesday night. The party did not comment last night.
However, North Antrim MP Mr Paisley said it was “abhorrent” to see any sort of violence interfere with the political process.
He argued, however, that no one could say that President Trump provoked protesters to break the law.
“He said that we’ll go down and we’ll protest peacefully,” said Mr Paisley.
“I’m looking at his comments that were put up in what seemed to be a live commentary, that they would go down and applaud those members of Congress and the House that they agree with.
“He went on to say there’s some they don’t agree with but he didn't say to do anything," he told The Belfast Telegraph.
“Someone’s always going to look for someone to blame here but I think at the end of the day anyone who follows American politics knows it is a very, very deeply divided society.”
