Trump Declined to Call for ‘Peace’ in Jan. 6 Tweet — Audio Shows Rioters Responded By Calling For Violence

Former President Donald Trump resisted urgent calls from his advisers and allies to post a tweet calling for “peace” in the middle of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, multiple former staffers told the House Select Committee, and the rioters interpreted his halfhearted call to support the Capitol Police as an endorsement to cause further violence and mayhem.

Former Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews testified at the committee hearing Thursday evening that she spoke with Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence.

“After the tweet about the vice president, I found Kayleigh and told her that I thought the president needed to immediately send out a tweet that condemned the violence that we were seeing, and that there needed to be a call to action to tell these people to leave the Capitol,” said Matthews. “And she agreed and walked over to the Oval Dining Room to find the president.”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) remarked that the committee had interviewed McEnany and she said that she returned to the press office after meeting with Trump about this tweet, and asked Matthews what she had said then.

Matthews testified that McEnany told her that a tweet had been sent out. “And I told her that I thought the tweet did not go far enough. I thought there needed to be a call to action, and he needed to condemn the violence.”

They were in a room “full of people” as they had this conversation, Matthews continued, but they weren’t paying attention to the two of them, and she described McEnany’s comments:

She looked directly at me and in a hushed tone shared with me 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 she said that there was a back and forth going over different phrases to find something that he was comfortable with.

And it wasn’t until Ivanka Trump suggested the phrase, “stay peaceful,” that he finally agreed to include it.

Kinzinger noted that Trump had not only resisted writing “stay peaceful,” he made comments to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that the rioters were doing what they should be doing, and this message was “heard clearly” by his supporters, including Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander.

“Rioters storming the Capitol also heard President Trump’s message,” said Kinzinger to introduce a video showing surveillance footage from the rotunda showing several members of the Oath Keepers and audio from their walkie talkie communications “as they share intelligence and communicate about President Trump’s 2:38 tweet in real time.”

On the video, the rioters can be heard saying that CNN was reporting that members of Congress had been evacuated to a safety room, but “there is no safe place in the United States for any of these motherf*ckers right now, let me tell you.”

“I hope they understand that we are not joking around.”

“Trump just tweeted, ‘Please support our Capitol Police. They are on our side. Do not harm them.'”

“That’s saying a lot, by what he didn’t say. He didn’t say not to do anything to the Congressmen.”

Kinzinger asked former Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger about his thoughts about Trump’s tweets, mentioning his prior testimony.

“Mr. Pottinger, you told us that you considered the tweets sent to this point to be, quote, ‘wholly inadequate given the urgency of the crisis.’ What, in your view, would have been needed?”

“It was insufficient,” Pottinger replied. “You could count me among those who was hoping to see an unequivocal, strong statement clearing out the Capitol, telling people to stand down, leave, go home. I think that’s what we were hoping for.”

“Something a lot more kind of definitive and not ambiguous,” said Kinzinger.

“Yes,” Pottinger agreed.

“He has that power over his folks,” said Kinzinger.

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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