Trump calls Jan. 6 rioters 'warriors' during scorching Las Vegas rally

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday referred to rioters who stormed the capital on Jan. 6 as "warriors," claiming they were set up by police.

"Those J6 warriors, they were warriors, but they were really more than anything else, they're victims of what happened. All they were doing is protesting a rigged election," he told a crowd during a rally in Las Vegas, falsely asserting that the 2020 election was fixed. "That's what they were doing. And the police say, 'go in, go in, go in, go in … Go on in. Everybody. Go on in.' What a setup that was, what a horrible, horrible thing."

Since Jan. 6, 2021, federal prosecutors have charged more than 1,424 defendants who were arrested in connection with the Capitol riot -- about 820 of whom have pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges, the Justice Department said in May. More than 460 people have been incarcerated, according to figures released earlier this year by the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. At least 255 have pleaded guilty to felonies, according to the DOJ, including assaults on federal officers, obstructing law enforcement and seditious conspiracy; another 565 people have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.

Trump spoke on Sunday amid extreme heat, with temperatures topping 100 degrees in Nevada. Six people who attended the rally were taken to a hospital, while another two dozen received medical attention on site amid extreme heat, the Clark County Fire Department said.

The county fire department said "most, if not all calls, were heat-related" -- with 97 people utilizing its cooling tents. Temperatures on Sunday topped 100 degrees and the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat watch.

Prior to the rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas the Trump campaign stressed its efforts to implement "comfort measures" to ensure the safety of rally goers who usually spend hours waiting in line just to get into Trump rallies and additional hours waiting for Trump to take the stage -- including providing water bottles, allowing small umbrellas into the rally, setting up tents and misting stations, and deploying "ample" medical staff in case of emergencies.

Trump's Las Vegas rally follows a town hall on Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona, when the temperature also hit triple digits, sending 11 to the hospital, ABC News' Phoenix affiliate KNXV reported.

At Sunday's Las Vegas rally, Trump was expected to focus on courting Latino voters, emphasizing his campaign rhetoric on border security and undocumented immigrants, but the former president struggled to stick to a topic after his campaign ran into issues with his teleprompter.

Despite hurdles with the teleprompter and the weather, Trump announced his plan to get rid of taxes on tips, an attempt at courting voters in a city that relies heavily on the hospitality industry.

"For those hotel workers and people that get tips -- you're going to be very happy because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips people make," Trump said, acknowledging that it could be an "unpopular" policy.

"We're gonna do that right away, first thing in office," Trump continued. "... And you do a great job of service. You take care of people, and I think it's going to be something that really is deserved, more important than popular, unpopular. I do some unpopular things too, if it's right for the country. I do what's right."

Trump railed against Biden's immigration policies and the economy under the current administration, calling Biden's new executive action on immigration from last week, "pro invasion, pro child trafficking, pro woman trafficking, pro human trafficking,and pro drug dealers."

Biden last week took executive action to limit the number of migrants who can claim asylum between ports of entry at the southern U.S. border. The rule will turn away migrants who are claiming asylum after there have been seven consecutive days of more than 2,500 encounters along the southern border. The restrictions on asylum claims would remain in place for an additional 14 days once daily encounters at the border fall to a seven-day average of 1,500 or less.

Earlier this year, Senate Democrats and Republicans negotiated a bipartisan border bill that was effectively killed in the House at the behest of former President Trump, who is ratcheting up his anti-immigrant rhetoric this election cycle and making it a centerpiece of his agenda.

"It's weak, it's ineffective, it's bullsh--, what he signed," Trump said Sunday of Biden's executive action.

During the rally, Trump also joked that he only cares about the votes, not his supporters, as he was saying he needs "every vote" and that he doesn't want anybody "going on me."

"Is that breeze nice? You feel the breeze? Because I don't want anybody going on me," Trump said. "We need every voter. I don't care about you. I just want to vote. I don't care."