US President Donald Trump says his speech before last week’s deadly Capitol riot, when he urged his supporters to march on Congress, was “totally appropriate”.
Mr Trump dismissed as “ridiculous” efforts by Democrats in Congress to impeach him for inciting insurrection.
He leaves office on 20 January, when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on an article of impeachment on Wednesday.
“I think it’s [the impeachment procedure] causing tremendous danger to our country and it’s causing tremendous anger. I want no violence,” Mr Trump said.
He was speaking as he left the White House for a visit to Texas to inspect a section of the border wall with Mexico.
During his speech at the rally in Washington on 6 January, Mr Trump repeated his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud during the 3 November presidential election and urged his supporters to march on Congress.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong,” he told the crowd of several thousand supporters.
He said Mr Pence should have “the courage to do what he has to do”, claiming without foundation that Mr Pence had the constitutional power to overturn the votes which were being formally tallied in Congress that day.
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Mr Trump said.
Dozens of people have since been detained in connection with last week’s violence, which left five people dead, including a police officer.
The House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday to ask Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke constitutional powers to remove Mr Trump from office – an idea Mr Pence is said to oppose.
That vote is expected to fail, and so the House will then consider an article of impeachment against Mr Trump for “incitement of insurrection”.
Democrats have the majority in the House, so the impeachment vote is likely to pass. If it does, Mr Trump will become the first president in US history to be impeached twice.
However, the impeachment will only lead to his removal from office if a two-thirds majority votes in favour of his conviction in the Senate.
That would need the assent of a substantial number of Republicans and so far, few have shown any willingness to vote against a president from their own party.
Calls for Mr Trump’s resignation, removal from office or impeachment have grown among Democrats and some Republicans in the days following the riots in Congress.
The FBI is warning of armed protests in all 50 states by right-wing extremists ahead of Mr Biden’s inauguration. Up to 15,000 National Guard troops will be deployed in Washington DC for the event.
Separately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has cancelled his final trip overseas before the Biden administration takes office. He was due to travel to Brussels for meetings with Nato officials on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Nato secretary-general called the riot in Washington “shocking” and called for the result of the 2020 presidential election to be respected.
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