Mark Meadows Falsely Claims Trump Pushed for National Guard Response, ‘Condemned’ Attack as Part of ‘Immediate Action’ to Capitol Riot

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushed two clearly false claims on Fox News on Thursday, after the third day of the Donald Trump’s impeachment trial for inciting the Capitol insurrection.

“We took immediate action,” Meadows claimed after Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked why the former president chose not to tell the rioters to disperse during the hours they were ransacking the Capitol, noting it has been a major talking point from House Democrats during Trump’s Senate trial.

“He wanted our National Guard to be on the ready for any civil unrest that might be there,” Meadows then claimed. “And so he tweeted out a number of things as we were looking at some of this unfold, what we now know happened actually was not as graphic as was laid out over the last couple of days.”

However, the first National Guard members did not arrive at the Capitol until roughly 5:40 p.m., according to a report on FactCheck.org, hours after the first wave of rioters began attacking and overwhelming police to ultimately breach the building.

A New York Times report, which cited unnamed Defense Department officials, also reported that it was Mike Pence who ultimately gave the order to deploy the National Guard, not Trump.

CNN also had a story that Trump “initially resisted” deploying the military reinforcements, despite Meadows’ claim that the then-president wanted the troops on call to ensure safety. Trump’s former chief of staff did not provide any evidence to refute the news reports or substantiate his claim.

Moments later, Meadows lied by saying that Trump called out the Capitol attack — “He condemned it” — in real time.  That is not true. Trump didn’t release a video addressing the riot until after 4:15 pm ET on Jan. 6 and in the clip posted to Twitter, he praised the rioters as “very special” even as he asked them to leave in peace.

“We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order,” he said, later adding, “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.”

Watch above, via Fox News.