“Kevin, maybe these people are just more angry about this than you are”
[return to Not Going Back][return to Jan 6 Timeline]
The whole world saw Donald Trump say “We love you. You’re very special,” to the rioters on the video he posted to Twitter at 4:17pm on January 6, 2021. His behavior behind the scenes also shows that he was not upset by the attack. While some try to portray the violence as a surprise unconnected to Trump’s aggressive speech that day, Trump did not act like someone shocked by the unexpected attack on the Capitol.
From Republican Congress member Jaime Herrera Beutler’s (R-WA) tweet (2/12/2021) about Republican Congress member Kevin McCarthy’s January 6 call telling Trump that his supporters “literally just came through my office windows” and demanding that Trump “call off the riot”:
“…according to McCarthy, the president said, ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’”
Some have dismissed Herrera-Beutler’s statement because she had previously been a Trump skeptic. But Mick Mulvaney had served in the Trump administration since it began, and also said he was friendly with McCarthy. He testified under oath that McCarthy had told him shortly after January 6 that ” the President told them something along the lines of, Kevin, maybe these people are just more angry about this than you are.” (p.43 of GPO Transcript CTRL0000916070).
Similarly, Marc Short (Chief of Staff for Vice-President Mike Pence) spoke to McCarthy on January 6 and testified under oath that McCarthy told him that he had spoken “with the President or with somebody at the White House” (Short said he did not recall which) and that McCarthy had “expressed frustration at not taking the circumstance as seriously as they should at that moment.” (p. 46 of GPO Transcript CTRL0000038861)
Fox News reporter Chris Wallace pressed McCarthy on whether Trump had chastised McCarthy for not being as upset as the rioters. McCarthy worked hard to dodge the question, but when Wallace would not relent, McCarthy looked away, lowered his voice, and made about the weakest denial possible: “No, listen, my conversations with the president are my conversations with the president. I engaged in the idea of making sure we could stop what was going on inside the Capitol at that moment in time. The president said he would help.”
Remain Peaceful?
Testimony and texts show that Trump advisors believed that Trump’s two tweets on January 6 urging rioters to “stay peaceful” and “remain peaceful” were not nearly strong enough. There is evidence that he resisted even making those mild statements. Ivanka claimed she did not recall if she was the one who convinced him to tell protesters to “stay peaceful”, but admitted it was possible she had.
Trump Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews testified that during the riot, Press Secretary McEnany told her “That the President did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet and that it took some convincing on their part, those who were in the room… And it wasn’t until Ivanka Trump suggested the phrase ‘stay peaceful’ that he finally agreed to include it.” Video here.
Cassidy Hutchinson was an aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. Like Matthews, she was in the White House on January 6. She testified under oath that Meadows told her that Trump “doesn’t want to do anything” about the rioters at the Capitol, and that Ivanka Trump had argued with the president about condemning the violence.
In addition, Trump Senate ally Lindsey Graham said that, regarding the rioters, “The president saw these people as allies” and that Ivanka and Trump aides “were all trying to get him to speak out, to tell everyone to leave.”
What is proof?
In a court of law, third party statements would not prove that someone said something. However, as voters we must make the best decision we can with the information at hand. I notice that the same people who become amateur lawyers to defend Trump are willing to leap to condemning Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton based on rumors and hearsay.
Three people from Kevin McCarthy’s party said they heard him complaining that the White House was indifferent to pleas to rein in the rioters attacking the Capitol. Three people in or close to the White House heard on January 6 that Trump’s mild tweets about being peaceful only happened because Ivanka and others argued for them. Documentary evidence from Mark Meadows’ phone shows that close Trump allies urged him to go further and tell the rioters to leave the Capitol. We know that from about 1:30pm to 4pm, two and a half hours, Trump refused.