Trump drafted a tweet urging supporters to march to Capitol, Jan. 6 committee reveals
he Jan. 6 committee presented further evidence on Tuesday refuting the notion that the deadly attack on the Capitol was a spontaneous riot that got out of hand, with Donald Trump and many of his allies not only aware that his supporters intended to march to the Capitol, but encouraged it, despite concerns that it could turn violent.
Even some of Trump’s congressional allies were worried about the possibility of violence. The committee aired audio of Rep. Debbie Lesko, Republican of Arizona, from before Jan. 6 asking for increased security at Capitol Hill on that day. She said she “asked leadership to come up with a safety plan” for members of Congress.
“President Trump is a 76-year-old man,” Cheney said. “He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.” Several of the White House aides who were present for the more than six-hour meeting—or who were nearby during it—described the gathering as farcical and outrageous. Hershmann said they were pushing “ludicrous conspiracy theories” on the President, including that Venezuela meddled in the election. Cipollone told committee investigators that the group demonstrated a “general disregard for the importance of actually backing up what you say.
Shortly after the meeting concluded, Trump posted his now-infamous tweet urging his supporters to come to Washington. “Be there,” he said. “Will be wild!” The panel showed how the tweet unleashed a clarion call to radical right-wing militia groups. “My concern was that the former President, for seemingly the first time, was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives,” the employee said in a voice-altered recording. “We had not seen that sort of direct communication before, and that concerned me.”
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