User:NewsAndEventsGuy/111 Donald Trump's response to the 2021 US Capitol Attack

Originally copied from Domestic Reactions to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol

During the riot
Trump was in the West Wing of the White House at the time. A close adviser to Trump said the president wasn't taking many phone calls. When Trump watches television, the adviser explained, he will pause a recorded program to take a phone call, but "if it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”

Trump, who had spent previous weeks promoting the "Save America" rally, was "initially pleased" when his supporters breached the Capitol; he refused to intercede, but also "expressed disgust on aesthetic grounds" about what he called the "low class" appearance of the supporters involved in the rioting. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said that senior White House officials told him Trump was "delighted" to hear that rioters were entering the Capitol. Staffers reported that Trump had been "impossible to talk to throughout the day", and inability to deal with his election loss had, according to one staffer, made Trump "out of his mind". Concerned that Trump may have committed treason through his actions, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly advised administration officials to avoid contact with Trump and ignore any illegal orders that could further incite the attack to limit their prosecutorial liability under the Sedition Act of 1918.

At 2:46, as the rioting continued and after senators had been evacuated from the Senate floor, Trump phoned Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) intending to speak to Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), asking him to make more objections to the counting of the electoral votes to try to overturn the election. At 2:47, as his supporters violently clashed with police at the Capitol, Trump tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!" The Washington Post later reported that Trump did not want to include the words "stay peaceful".

By 3:10 p.m., the pressure was building on Trump to condemn supporters engaged in the riots; Trump's former communications director, Alyssa Farah, called upon him to "Condemn this now" and wrote, "you are the only one they will listen to." By 3:25p.m., Trump tweeted "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue," but did not call upon the crowd to disperse. By 3:40 p.m., a number of congressional Republicans called upon Trump to more specifically condemn violence and to call on his supporters to end the occupation of the Capitol: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R–CA) said that he had spoken to Trump to ask him to "calm individuals down"; Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a tweet telling Trump that "it is crucial you help restore order by sending resources to assist the police and ask those doing this to stand down"; and Representative Mike Gallagher (R–WI), in a video message, told Trump to "call it off". Additionally, throughout the day, Trump's daughter Ivanka, who held the position of senior adviser, asked him more than once to stop the violence. Lindsey Graham later told The Washington Post that "it took [Trump] awhile to appreciate the gravity of the situation... [he] saw these people [the rioters] as allies in his journey and sympathetic to the idea that the election was stolen".

By 3:50 p.m., White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the National Guard and "other federal protective services" had been deployed. At 4:05 p.m., Pence—in contrast to Trump, who only called upon his supporters to "remain peaceful"—called for the occupation of the Capitol to end immediately. At 4:06 p.m. on national television, President-elect Biden called for President Trump to end the riot. At 4:22p.m., Trump issued a video message on social media that was later taken down by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In it, he praised his supporters and repeated his claims of electoral fraud, saying: "This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace."

At 6:25 p.m., Trump tweeted: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long" and then issued a call: "Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"

At 7:00 p.m., Rudy Giuliani placed a second call to Lee's number and left a voicemail intended for Tuberville urging him to make more objections to the electoral votes as part of a bid "to try to just slow it down". Giuliani said: "I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it... the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow."

After the riot
Shortly after Congress certified Biden's victory, Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Director of Social Media, Dan Scavino, issued a statement from Trump saying, "Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless, there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"

In a video statement released on January7, Trump condemned the violence at the Capitol, saying that "a new administration will be inaugurated", which was widely seen as a concession, and that his "focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power" to the Biden administration. Vanity Fair reported that Trump was at least partially convinced to do so by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told Trump that a sufficient number of Senate Republicans would support removing him from office unless he conceded. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had attempted to distance the administration from the rioters' behavior in a televised statement earlier in the day. On January 9, The New York Times reported that Trump had told White House aides that he regretted committing to an orderly transition of power and would never resign from office.

Trump's acknowledgment of his electoral defeat was met with opposition and hesitation from some of his supporters. Pro-Trump and far-right political commentators Nick Fuentes and Cassandra Fairbanks said Trump had "throw[n] his supporters under the bus" while QAnon conspiracy theorists performed a numerological reading of the time stamps in Trump's video statement and deemed there was a secret encoded message; Politico highlighted previously pro-Trump users of the far-right social network Parler calling Trump a "dildo".

Axios reported that Trump spoke with Kevin McCarthy on January11, telling McCarthy "Antifa people" had stormed the Capitol; McCarthy told him "it's MAGA. I know. I was there". Trump also complained to McCarthy about election fraud, causing McCarthy to reply "[t]he election is over".

On January 12, in his first public appearance since the Capitol riot, Trump condemned the violence but denied he was responsible for inciting the mob stating that his remarks at the "Save America" rally were "totally appropriate".

On January 13, hours after his second impeachment, Trump reiterated his condemnation of the violence in a video statement. He did not claim responsibility for the riot. In the wake of the suspensions of his social media accounts, he denounced "the unprecedented assault on free speech we have seen in recent days", saying that "[w]hat is needed now is for us to listen to one another, not to silence one another."

In a March interview, Trump said he remembered his speech on January 6 as "a very beautiful time with extremely loving and friendly people". He made the comment to ABC reporter Jonathan Karl, who was interviewing him for a forthcoming book; Trump's comment was publicly revealed in November.

In a March 25 interview on Fox News, Trump defended the Capitol attackers, saying that they were patriots who posed "zero threat". He also criticized law enforcement for "persecuting" the rioters. He made no mention of the deaths or the attacks on police officers. His former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on March 27 that the comment that there was "no risk" was "manifestly false" since "people were killed."

In October 2021, Trump stated "The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!"

Trump planned to give a press conference from Mar-a-Lago on the one-year anniversary of the attack, but he canceled it after learning that TV stations would likely not broadcast it live.

In a speech in January 2022, Trump said that if he returned to the White House following the 2024 presidential election, he might pardon those convicted of participating in the attack.