Trump defends his actions on January 6th by claiming he offered National Guard support and called for peace, while also using red herrings and tu quoque fallacies to deflect criticism and attack Biden's character. While Trump raises some potentially valid points about the handling of the Capitol riot and Biden's past actions, his arguments are undermined by his use of fallacious reasoning and his failure to directly address the question of his own role and responsibility in the events of that day.

1. red herring • Instead of addressing the question about his actions on January 6th, Trump shifts the focus to unrelated topics like the border, energy independence, and taxes.

MODERATOR: What do you say to voters who believe that you violated that oath through your actions and inaction on January 6 and worry that you'll do it again?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think too many believe that. And let me tell you about January 6. On January 6, we had a great border, nobody coming through, very few. On January 6, we were energy independent. On January 6, we had the lowest taxes ever. ​We had the lowest regulations ever. On January 6th, we were respected all over the world. All over the world, we were respected. And then he comes in and we're now laughed at.

These statements about the border, energy, and taxes on January 6th do not directly address the question of Trump's role in the events at the Capitol that day. Instead, these points seem to be brought up to distract from the main issue and to paint a positive picture of his administration's accomplishments, regardless of their relevance to the specific question at hand.

This is a common tactic used in debates and arguments to avoid addressing uncomfortable or damaging topics by shifting the conversation to more favorable ground.

2. false equivalence • Trump tries to compare the Jan 6th riot to other protests from recent years:

When they ripped down Portland, when they ripped down many other cities, you go to Minnesota, Minneapolis, what they've done there with the fires all over the city, if I didn't bring in the National Guard, that city would have been destroyed.

Equating the motivations and actions of the January 6th rioters with those protesting racial injustice in other cities is misleading. The January 6th attack was a direct assault on the US Capitol with the goal of overturning a democratic election, fueled by election misinformation. While some protests for racial justice involved property damage, their root causes and objectives were fundamentally different.

3. tu quoque • Instead of directly addressing the question about his own actions, Trump attempts to shift the focus to Biden's alleged wrongdoings.

Joe could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he's done. He's done horrible things.

This is a fallacious argument as it does not address the original question or justify Trump's own behavior.

4. quotation out of context •  By selectively quoting her, Trump's attempts to deflect blame and responsibility from himself onto Nancy Pelosi, regarding security failures on January 6th.

And Nancy Pelosi, if you just watched the news from two days ago, on tape to her daughter, who's a documentary filmmaker, they say, what she's saying, oh, no, it's my responsibility, I was responsible for this. Because I offered them 10,000 soldiers or National Guard. And she turned them down... ​And I said, they ought to have some National Guard or whatever. And I offered it to her. And she now admits that she turned it down. And it was the same day... She said, I take full responsibility for January 6th.

Here's the original quote from Pelosi, in context:

We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous. You’re going to ask me in the middle of the thing — when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff — ‘Should we call the Capitol Police?’ I mean, ‘the National Guard?’ Why weren't the National Guard there to begin with?

Given the full quote, and understanding that Pelosi had shared responsibility for Capitol security but did not have the authority to call in the National Guard, we can see that Trump's claim misleads the audience about Pelosi's acceptance of responsibility. The responsibility for deploying the National Guard in the District of Columbia lies with the President and the Department of Defense, not with the Speaker of the House.

This clarification shows that Trump's argument appears to be an attempt to shift blame rather than a valid critique based on the actual powers and responsibilities that Pelosi acknowledged.