‘He chose not to act’: J6 cmte details Trump’s actions during Capitol riot

Source: Politico | July 21, 2022 | Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney

‘He chose not to act’: Jan. 6 panel details Trump’s actions during Capitol riot

Lawmakers on Thursday broke down the former president’s 187 minutes of inaction as a riot engulfed the Capitol, promising more hearings on the way.

While rioters smashed through police lines at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump asked aides for a list of senators to call as he continued to pursue paths to overturn his defeat.

“He wanted a list of senators,” former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in recorded testimony, aired by the Jan. 6 select committee at a public hearing Thursday night.

McEnany didn’t identify which senators Trump called, but one of them was Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who has previously described receiving a call from the then-president just as he and Pence were being evacuated, as the mob encroached on the Senate chamber. The select panel also revealed in its eighth summertime hearing, scheduled during primetime, that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had called a host of other GOP lawmakers on the evening of the attack — ostensibly to shore up support for continuing to challenge the 2020 election.

That was just one thread of new evidence the select panel wove as it delivered a narrative reminder that Trump didn’t just sit on his hands during the riot by his supporters; he sought to use the chaos to further his goal of clinging to power. The select panel added new details to the timeline of Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, painting a picture of a president who sat idly in the Oval Office, watching on TV as the mob battered its way through police lines and into the Capitol.

New images and video shown on Thursday shed specific light on the climate surrounding Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, and members of Congress as they fled violent rioters. The committee aired audio from Pence’s Secret Service detail making rapid-fire decisions about the proper route through the Capitol to avoid confronting the mob.

“We may lose the ability to leave,” one agent warned moments before Pence was ushered to an underground loading dock, where he remained for the remainder of the riot.

“President Trump did not fail to act … he chose not to act,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said at Thursday’s hearing.

While Trump’s public silence during much of the violence is already well-known, the panel argues that the new evidence it presented about what happened inside the West Wing showed he purposely didn’t intervene in the chaos until it was clear the mob had failed to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election.

“Donald Trump ignored and disregarded the desperate pleas of his own family, including Ivanka and Don Jr.,” said the select panel’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), referring to the former president’s children. “He could not be moved.”

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