Condoleezza Rice Calls 1/6 Riot an 'Assault on Law and Order,' but U.S. Must 'Move On'

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is suggesting that even though the January 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection was a "riot," the U.S. must "move on."

During a Wednesday appearance on the daytime TV show The View, Rice told the group of co-hosts that she believes that the riot was completely "wrong." Joy Behar then mentioned former President Donald Trump's rising poll numbers among Republican voters and the steady support he's received even after the January 6 riot.

"He wants to move past that, but according to what I'm reading he seems to be out of step with his own voters," said Behar. "Seventy-eight percent of Republicans think that Trump should run in 2024 for president," Behar continued.

"I don't think Mitch McConnell wants that. I don't think so. And that's part of what he's saying, you know, let that ship go. And also, probably he'd like to get past the insurrection," Behar ended.

Rice then called the January 6 riots an "assault" before mentioning that the riot "interrupted democratic processes."

"I said at the time January 6 was wrong," said Rice. "I called it an assault on law and order and an assault on our democratic processes. So full stop, it was wrong. Law enforcement will determine what happened there and those who violated the law ought to be punished."

Rice also mentioned that on the day of the January 6 riots, she cried for the first time since she was national security adviser during the September 11 attacks. She noted that, "I study countries that do this and I didn't think it would happen in my own country."

"It's time to move on in a lot of ways," Rice continued. "I'm one who believes that the American people are now concerned about what we call their kitchen table issues: the price of gasoline, inflation, what's happening to their kids in school ... And so we do have a lot of issues, and I hope what we'll do is move on, onto the next generation of leadership."

Currently, the House Select Committee is investigating the January riot where former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon admitted on his War Room podcast in September that he had a hand in planning the rally for then-President Donald Trump that preceded the January 6 riot.

"Forty-two percent of the American people think that Biden did not win the presidency legitimately," said Bannon.

"It killed itself," Bannon continued. "Just look at what this illegitimate regime is doing. It killed itself. OK? But we told you from the very beginning, just expose it, just expose it, never back down, never give up and this thing will implode."

Newsweek reached out to Rice for further comment.