‘He Was Pouring Gasoline on the Fire’: Multiple White House Aides Testify Trump Knew About Riot When He Tweeted About Pence

The January 6 Committee aired testimony from multiple former White House aides who spoke of how former President Donald Trump egged on his violent supporters at the U.S. Capitol in real-time.

The committee ran footage of Ben Williamson, an aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews during their depositions. Both of them described how Meadows went to go tell Trump what was happening at the Capitol, and Matthews said “We had all talked about at that point about how it was bad, and the situation was getting out of hand.”

“I know Ben Williamson and I were conferring, and we thought that the president needed to tweet something. and tweet something immediately,” Matthews continued. “And I think when Kayleigh [McEnany] gave us that order of ‘don’t say anything to the media,’ I told her that I thought the president needed to tweet something.”

Matthews added that shortly after, she and her colleagues got a notification on their phones — which they knew was a tweet from Trump — and that’s when they saw the the president blasting Vice President Mike Pence for refusing his demand for overturning the election.

Congressman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) helmed this segment of the hearing as it focused on how Trump’s tweet went out while the rioting mob was already inside the Capitol and getting closer to Pence.

“It was clear it was escalating and escalating quickly,” Matthews said. “So then, when that tweet, the Mike Pence tweet was sent out, I remember us saying that that was the last thing that needed to be tweeted at that moment. The situation was already bad, and so, it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that.”

The testimony comes after the committee provided testimony that Trump knew his supporters were chanting “hang Mike Pence,” and he thought Pence “deserves it.” By the time Pence and his entourage were escorted to a secure location, Aguilar said, the mob was “approximately 40 feet” away from him.

Watch above, via CNN.

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