Raskin on Trump’s Jan. 6 Plan at the Capitol: ‘He Thought He Would Enter Like Mussolini’
House Jan. 6 select committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Donald Trump planned to arrive at the Capitol and triumphantly receive a second term despite losing the 2020 presidential election.
On Thursday, the committee interviewed Secret Service agent Robert Engel, who was in the presidential vehicle with Trump after the then-president concluded a speech to his supporters in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump falsely reiterated to an enraged crowd that the election was stolen from him. He urged the mob to march to the Capitol and “show strength.”
Ultimately, his supporters stormed the Capitol.
According to hearsay testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol where the election was being certified. Citing security concerns, the Secret Service refused, which enraged Trump according to this secondhand testimony. He even allegedly tried to grab the steering wheel.
Appearing on MSNBC Thursday, Raskin was asked about Engel’s testimony by Hallie Jackson.
“Can you tell us anything new that you may have learned from his testimony?” she asked.
“Well, I can’t enter into specific details about this testimony,” Raskin responded. “But I will tell you that from everything we’ve learned, we know that the former president was incensed and enraged when he was not being taken to the Capitol, he was adamant that he be able to join the mob and approach and enter the Capitol with them.”
Jackson pressed Raskin further on Engel’s testimony.
“Did Mr. Engel say anything that would contradict the conclusion that you have just laid out – that former President Trump was desperate in fact to get to the Capitol on the day of the insurrection?”
The congressman reiterated that Trump was angry and added that the former president expected to get a hero’s welcome and be granted a second term.
“Again, everything that we’ve heard tells me that the former president was incensed,” Raskin replied. “He was enraged and there was conflict about whether or not he would go to the Capitol, and he was adamant that he be able to do that. I imagine that he thought that he would enter like Mussolini being carried on the shoulders of his supporters and enter the Capitol.”
Quite infamously, Benito Mussolini and his fascist Blackshirts ascended to power after the March on Rome in 1922.
Raskin said Trump seemed to think Vice President Mike Pence – the certification’s presiding officer – could be pressured into not certifying the results of the election. Failing that, he’d be jettisoned in favor of someone else.
“Donald Trump really went to bed the night before on the evening of Jan. 5 believing that he was going to be staying in office for another four years,” Raskin added. “And he believed that through the day.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
