President
Donald
J. Trump
at a
rally
near the
White
House on
Jan. 6,
the day
of the
Capitol
siege.
(Credit...Pete
Marovich
for The
New York
Times) |
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Trump
supporters
participate
in a
rally
Jan. 6
in
Washington.
An AP
review
of
records
finds
that
members
of the
Trump
campaign
were key
players
in the
rally.(John
Minchillo/AP) |
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‘Take me
up to
the
Capitol
now’:
How
close
Trump
came to
joining
rioters
By
Isaac
Arnsdorf,
Josh
Dawsey,
Carol D.
Leonnig
washingtonpost.com
WASHINGTON
- Toward
the end
of 2020,
then-President
Donald
Trump
began
raising
a new
idea
with
aides:
that he
would
personally
lead a
march to
the
Capitol
on the
following
Jan. 6.
Trump
brought
it up
repeatedly
with key
advisers
in the
Oval
Office,
according
to a
person
who
talked
with him
about
it. The
president
told
others
he
wanted a
dramatic,
made-for-TV
moment
that
could
pressure
Republican
lawmakers
to
support
his
demand
to throw
out the
electoral
college
results
showing
that Joe
Biden
had
defeated
him, the
person
said.
The
excursion
that
almost
happened
came
into
clearer
focus
this
week, as
the
House
committee
investigating
the
attack
on the
Capitol
on Jan.
6, 2021
presented
explosive
testimony
and
records
detailing
Trump’s
fervent
demands
to lead
his
supporters
mobbing
the seat
of
government.
Though
Trump’s
trip was
ultimately
thwarted
by his
own
security
officers,
the new
evidence
cuts
closer
to the
critical
question
of what
he knew
about
the
violence
in store
for that
day.
Trump
has
acknowledged
his
foiled
effort
to reach
the
Capitol.
“Secret
Service
wouldn’t
let me,”
he told
The
Washington
Post in
April.
“I
wanted
to go. I
wanted
to go so
badly.
Secret
Service
says you
can’t
go. I
would
have
gone
there in
a
minute.”
But
as Trump
repeatedly
floated
the idea
in the
weeks
leading
up to
Jan. 6,
several
of his
advisers
doubted
he meant
it or
didn’t
take the
suggestion
seriously.
One
senior
administration
official
said
Trump
raised
the
prospect
repeatedly
but in a
“joking
manner.”
As a
result,
the
White
House
staff
never
turned
Trump’s
stated
desires
into
concrete
plans.
Press
officers
made no
preparations
for a
detour
to the
Capitol,
such as
scheduling
an
additional
stop for
the
motorcade
and the
pool of
reporters
who
follow
the
president’s
movements.
There
was no
operational
advance
plan
drafted
for the
visit.
No
speech
was
written
for him
to
deliver
on the
Hill,
and it
wasn’t
clear
exactly
what
Trump
would do
when he
got
there,
said the
person
who
talked
with
Trump
about
the
idea.
Former
White
House
aide
Cassidy
Hutchinson
testified
on June
28 about
President
Donald
Trump’s
actions
surrounding
the Jan.
6
Capitol
attack.
(Video:
JM
Rieger/The
Washington
Post,
Photo:
Jabin
Botsford/The
Washington
Post)
This
account
of
Trump’s
ceaseless
plotting
to join
the mob
at the
Capitol
on Jan.
6 is
based on
committee
testimony
and
evidence
as well
as 15
former
officials,
aides,
law
enforcement
officials
and
others,
who
spoke on
the
condition
of
anonymity
to
reveal
internal
details.
Aides
did not
know
where
Trump
got the
idea,
this
person
said,
but it
wasn’t
from
inside
the
White
House.
The
chief of
staff,
Mark
Meadows,
discussed
plans to
bring
Trump to
the
Capitol
with
Rep.
Scott
Perry
(R-Pa.)
and
lawyer
Rudy
Giuliani,
who was
leading
the
campaign’s
efforts
to
overturn
the
election
results,
according
to
testimony
from
Cassidy
Hutchinson,
a close
aide to
Meadows.
“I
remember
hearing
a few
different
ideas
discussed
between
Mark and
Scott
Perry,
Mark and
Rudy
Giuliani,”
Hutchinson
said in
videotaped
testimony
to the
Jan. 6
committee
played
during
Tuesday’s
hearing.
“I know
that
there
were
discussions
about
him
having
another
speech
outside
of the
Capitol
before
going
in. I
know
that
there is
a
conversation
about
him
going
into the
House
chamber
at one
point.”
Meadows
declined
to
comment
through
his
attorney.
Giuliani
and a
spokeswoman
for
Perry
did not
respond
to
requests
for
comment.
Hutchinson’s
attorneys
said
Wednesday
that she
“stands
by all
of the
testimony
she
provided
yesterday,
under
oath.”
Hutchinson’s
account
was
supported
by other
testimony
played
at the
hearing.
“He
brought
it up,
he said,
‘I want
to go
down to
the
Capitol,”
Max
Miller,
a White
House
aide now
running
for
Congress
in Ohio,
said in
taped
testimony.
But
Miller’s
entire
testimony
wasn’t
played,
where he
suggested
it was a
short-lived
idea,
according
to
people
familiar
with the
matter.
Some
White
House
officials
were out
of the
loop.
Ordinarily,
the
White
House’s
legislative
affairs
staffers
would be
involved
in a
visit to
Capitol
Hill,
but they
were not
briefed
on any
plans
for him
to go on
Jan. 6,
according
to two
senior
administration
officials.
Aides to
Vice
President
Mike
Pence
heard
secondhand
from
other
White
House
advisers
that
Trump
wanted
to go to
the
Capitol,
but they
were
never
given a
formal
plan and
did not
expect
him to
follow
through,
according
to a
Pence
adviser
with
direct
knowledge
of their
plans.
“There
was no
plan for
what to
do if
Trump
showed
up,” the
Pence
adviser
said.
“Frankly,
we
didn’t
think it
was
going to
happen.”
Some
of his
allies
said
Trump
never
brought
up the
idea of
going to
the
Capitol
with
them,
even as
he
bandied
it about
internally
with his
aides
and
Secret
Service
team.
“Not to
my
knowledge
was he
ever
coming
up
here,”
said
Sen.
Lindsey
O.
Graham
(R-S.C.),
who
regularly
talked
with
Trump in
the days
leading
up to
Jan. 6.
“To me,
I don’t
see him
going to
a riot.”
On
Jan. 4,
Trump
raised
the
issue
with
several
White
House
aides
again,
but
Secret
Service
and
senior
staff
warned
him it
would be
logistically
impossible
and
dangerous,
a person
familiar
with the
discussion
said.
Another
adviser
said the
Secret
Service
was
particularly
skittish
about a
trip to
the
Capitol
because
a trip
in
November
— when
Trump
went
into a
crowd of
election
fraud
protesters
in
Washington
— was
viewed
as
nightmarish
and
difficult
to
manage.
The
next
day, on
the eve
of the
rally,
Tony
Ornato,
the
White
House
deputy
chief of
staff
for
operations,
told a
senior
staffer
there
was no
possibility
they
were
going to
the
Capitol,
saying,
“That is
not part
of the
plan,”
the
staffer
recalled.
Trump,
though,
seemed
to have
other
ideas.
Just
before
he
addressed
the
rally on
the
Ellipse,
Trump
gathered
with
family
members
and
close
aides in
a tent
backstage.
As Trump
looked
at
monitors
showing
a video
feed of
the
crowd,
Hutchinson
testified
that she
overheard
him
complaining
about
unoccupied
space in
the shot
and
wanting
more
people
to
enter.
According
to her
testimony,
Ornato
explained
to Trump
that
some
people
in the
crowd
couldn’t
go
through
the
security
screening
because
they had
weapons.
“I
overheard
the
president
say
something
to the
effect
of, ‘I
don’t
care
that
they
have
weapons,
they’re
not here
to hurt
me,'”
Hutchinson
testified.
She also
recalled
hearing
Trump
say,
“Let my
people
in. They
can
march to
the
Capitol
after
the
rally’s
over.”
The
moment
was
captured
in
photographs
that the
committee
obtained
from the
National
Archives
and
displayed
during
the
hearing.
The
scene in
the tent
also
appeared
in a
video
recorded
by
Donald
Trump
Jr.,
showing
the
president
looking
at the
screens
and
talking
to
Meadows
and his
daughter
Ivanka
while
Kimberly
Guilfoyle
danced
to Laura
Branigan’s
“Gloria.”
Other
people
in the
tent at
the time
did not
respond
to
requests
for
comment
or
declined
to
corroborate
or
dispute
Hutchinson’s
account
on the
record.
Some
Secret
Service
officials
told the
committee
they did
not
recall
Trump
saying
he
wanted
to admit
more
people
despite
being
warned
of
weapons
in the
crowd,
according
to a
person
briefed
on their
testimony.
Trump
denied
wanting
to let
in
people
with
guns.
“Who
would
ever
want
that?
Not me!”
he
posted
on his
Truth
Social
platform.
When
Trump
took the
stage,
he told
the
rally,
“We’re
going to
walk
down and
I’ll be
there
with
you.”
The
remark
stunned
staffers
who
didn’t
understand
that to
be the
plan.
“I
told
people
we were
not
really
going to
the
Capitol,”
recalled
the
senior
staffer
who has
spoken
with
Ornato.
“It
never
crossed
my mind
that was
legitimate.”
But
as Trump
left the
stage,
he made
clear he
was
serious.
That’s
when his
personal
assistant,
Nick
Luna,
first
became
aware of
Trump’s
desire
to go to
the
Capitol,
according
to his
taped
testimony
played
at
Tuesday’s
hearing.
Hutchinson
testified
that she
overheard
Meadows
tell the
president
he was
still
working
on
arranging
the trip
up
Capitol
Hill.
According
to
Hutchinson,
she told
Meadows
that
Ornato
said the
movement
wasn’t
possible,
and
Meadows
responded,
“Okay,”
before
getting
into the
motorcade.
“MOGUL’s
going to
the
Capital
[sic] …
they are
clearing
a route
now,” a
National
Security
Council
staffer
posted
to an
internal
chat
obtained
by the
committee,
using
Trump’s
Secret
Service
code
name.
“They
are
begging
him to
reconsider,”
another
message
said.
When a
planned
route
was
posted
to the
chat,
the log
shows a
staffer
responding,
“So this
is
happening.”
Inside
the
presidential
SUV,
Trump’s
demands
to go to
the
Capitol
culminated
in a
dramatic
showdown,
according
to
Hutchinson,
who said
Ornato
described
the
incident
to her
shortly
afterward.
By her
account,
Trump
was
under
the
impression
from
Meadows
that his
surprise
trip to
the
Capitol
was
about to
happen.
In the
car,
Secret
Service
agent
Bobby
Engel
told
Trump
the
route to
the
Capitol
could
not be
secured
and they
would
return
to the
West
Wing,
Hutchinson
said.
“The
president
had a
very
strong,
very
angry
response
to
that,”
she
testified.
“Tony
described
him as
being
irate.
The
president
said
something
to the
effect
of, ‘I’m
the f-ing
president.
Take me
up to
the
Capitol
now.’”
When
Engel
insisted
that the
car was
instead
bound
for the
White
House,
Hutchinson
said
Trump
reached
toward
the
steering
wheel.
Engel
grabbed
his arm,
Hutchinson
testified,
and
said,
“Sir,
you need
to take
your
hand off
the
steering
wheel.
We’re
going
back to
the West
Wing.
We’re
not
going to
the
Capitol.”
According
to
Hutchinson’s
testimony
about
Ornato’s
account
to her,
Trump
used his
other
hand to
lunge
toward
Engel.
When
Ornato
told
this
story to
Hutchinson,
with
Engel in
the
room,
she
said, he
gestured
toward
his
collarbones.
When
Hutchinson
recounted
this at
the
hearing,
she
placed a
hand at
the base
of her
neck.
Trump
denied
trying
to grab
the
steering
wheel,
calling
Hutchinson’s
testimony
“'sick'
and
fraudulent.”
Ornato
and
Engel
were not
asked
about
the
incident
when
they
testified
to the
committee,
the
person
briefed
on the
Secret
Service
testimony
said.
Trump
spokesman
Taylor
Budowich
dismissed
Hutchinson’s
testimony
in a
statement
Thursday:
“The
fact
that The
Washington
Post is
still
trying
to
peddle
testimony
from a
witness
who has
been
widely
discredited,
and who
many
believe
perjured
herself
— which
is a
felony —
is an
absolute
embarrassment.”
Three
agents
who
accompanied
Trump on
Jan. 6
are
disputing
that
Trump
assaulted
or
grabbed
at Engel
and/or
the
steering
wheel,
according
to one
current
and one
former
law
enforcement
official
familiar
with
their
accounts.
The
three
agents,
Engle
and
Ornato
are also
willing
to
testify
under
oath to
the
committee
about
their
recollection
of
events
on Jan.
6 in the
Secret
Service
vehicle,
the two
people
said.
The
three
agents
do not
dispute
that
Trump
was
furious
that the
agents
would
not take
him to
the
Capitol.
Even
after
the car
returned
Trump to
the West
Wing, he
still
wouldn’t
let go
of
wanting
to reach
the
Capitol.
“When we
got back
to the
White
House,
he said
he
wanted
to
physically
walk
with the
marchers,
and
according
to my
notes,
he then
said
he’d be
fine
with
just
riding
the
Beast,”
former
press
secretary
Kayleigh
McEnany
said in
videotaped
testimony
to the
committee,
referring
to the
nickname
for the
fortified
presidential
limo.
“He
wanted
to be a
part of
the
march in
some
fashion.”
Trump
was
furious
with
Meadows
for
failing
to make
the trip
happen,
Hutchinson
testified
that
Meadows
told
her. By
the time
they
were
back in
the West
Wing,
the
televisions
were
showing
live
coverage
of the
rioters
overpowering
police
and
getting
closer
to the
Capitol’s
doors
and
windows.
Hutchinson
testified
that she
entered
Meadows’s
office
and
asked
him if
he was
watching.
“The
rioters
are
getting
really
close,”
she
recalled
asking
the
chief of
staff.
“Have
you
talked
to the
president?”
“No,”
Meadows
answered,
while
scrolling
and
texting
on his
phone,
according
to
Hutchinson’s
testimony,
“he
wants to
be alone
right
now.”
The Jan.
6
insurrection
The
House
select
committee
investigating
the Jan.
6, 2021,
insurrection
is
holding
a series
of
high-profile
hearings
this
month.
Congressional
hearings:
The
House
committee
investigating
the
attack
on the
U.S.
Capitol
has
conducted
more
than
1,000
interviews
over the
last
year.
It’s
sharing
its
findings
in a
series
of
hearings
starting
June 9.
Here’s
what we
know
about
the
hearings
and how
to watch
them.
The
riot: On
Jan. 6,
2021, a
pro-Trump
mob
stormed
the U.S.
Capitol
in an
attempt
to stop
the
certification
of the
2020
election
results.
Five
people
died on
that day
or in
the
immediate
aftermath,
and 140
police
officers
were
assaulted.
Inside
the
siege:
During
the
rampage,
rioters
came
perilously
close to
penetrating
the
inner
sanctums
of the
building
while
lawmakers
were
still
there,
including
former
vice
president
Mike
Pence.
The
Washington
Post
examined
text
messages,
photos
and
videos
to
create a
video
timeline
of what
happened
on Jan.
6.
Charges:
Proud
Boys
leader
Enrique
Tarrio
and four
lieutenants
have
been
charged
with
seditious
conspiracy,
joining
Oathkeepers
leader
Stewart
Rhodes
and
about
two
dozen
associates
in being
indicted
for
their
participation
in the
Capitol
attack.
They’re
just
some of
the
hundreds
who were
charged,
many of
which
received
punishments
substantially
lighter
than
what the
government
requested.
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