Melania Trump said Monday that she is “disappointed and disheartened” by the deadly riot at the Capitol last week by supporters of her husband. But she also lashed out at people she said have used the tragic event to spread “salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks and false and misleading accusations about me.”
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The statement marked the first lady's first public comment in the five days since a violent mob of Trump supporters, angry over Trump's election loss and stirred up by the president himself, stormed the Capitol and temporarily disrupted proceedings certifying President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.
“I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week,” Melania Trump wrote in a White House blog post released before dawn. “I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there have been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me — from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda.”
The first lady did not say who she was referring to. Last week, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the first lady's former friend and onetime assistant at the White House, wrote an editorial accusing her former boss of being “complicit in the destruction of America.”
Their friendship ended bitterly after Wolkoff, who had worked on arranging festivities for Trump's inauguration in 2017, said the first lady failed to defend her after questions arose about inaugural spending, now the subject of federal and congressional investigations.
In the post Monday, the first lady said: “This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. “It should not be used for personal gain.”