Trump starts Waco rally with song featuring him and January 6 choir

Former president Donald Trump opened his rally in Waco, Texas by playing a song he collaborated on with a group of inmates who are in prison for their actions in the January 6 riot.

The group of defendants have billed themselves as J6 Choir and they sing a version of “The Star Spangled Banner” with Mr Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegience entitled “Justice for All.” The former president has pledged that if he is re-elected, he will give pardons to defendants.

Mr Trump is holding his first major campaign event since announcing his 2024 campaign in Waco, Texas – a week after he said he expected to be indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The song earned notoriety when it became the number one song on iTunes. The song is being used to raise money for the defendants through an LLC run by conservative activist Ed Henry.

The effort comes as Republicans seek to rewrite the events of January 6. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with the mother of Ashli Babbitt, whom police shot dead as she tried to break into an area of the Capitol during the riot.

He also gave thousands of hours of footage to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who played cherry-picked footage of rioters looking mostly non-violent to make the insurrection look not as bad as Democrats have portrayed it.

In addition, on Friday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia led a delegation of Republicans who visited January 6 defendants who are being held at the DC Central Detention Facility.

Ms Greene said many of the defendants said they were being subjected to poor prison conditions.

But two Democratic members of Congress, Representative Robert Garcia of California and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, pushed back and noted how they had access to computer tablets for entertainment.

Ms Crockett specifically cited the song.

“Because I had questions about how in the heck does the January 6 Choir have a number one song on iTunes, if it’s so bad, right,” Ms Crockett told reporters.

Gustaf Kilander contributed to this report