‘He Knew He Could Stop It’: Trump Allies Trash Ex-Prez to CNN Over Failure to Act on Jan. 6

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More than a dozen Republican insiders who texted Mark Meadows during the Jan. 6 attack — including Trump allies — trashed former President Donald Trump in a new CNN report over his failure to stop the violence.

Then-chief of staff Meadows was the pivot man in a trove of text messages — which have been turned over to the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol — showing Republican staffers, lawmakers, and others pleading with him during the attack to get Trump to do something.

And in a new CNN report, Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb, and Elizabeth Stuart reached out to the senders of those texts. Over a dozen of them responded to say they still think Trump could have stopped the attack, should have stopped the attack, and in some cases, say he was the only person who could have stopped the attack.

Without exception, each said they stood by their texts and that they believed Trump had the power and responsibility to try to stop the attack immediately.

“I thought the President could stop it and was the only person who could stop it,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was Trump’s director of strategic communications until she left the White House in December 2020. Farah Griffin is now a CNN political commentator.

“When he finally tweeted something hours and hours later, there are reports of people inside the building saying, ‘He’s saying to go home.’ They would have listened to him,” she added.

Farah Griffin texted Meadows at 3:13 p.m. that day: “Potus has to come out firmly and tell protesters to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed.”

Trump’s former acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, also texted Meadows on January 6: “Mark: he needs to stop this, now. Can I do anything to help?”

Mulvaney told CNN he stands by his text. “I wish someone had responded to my outreach,” he said.

Some of them requested anonymity, and as the authors note, “Their words were blunt, emotional and damning, even those who remain staunch Trump allies”:

“I thought there was only one person who could stop it and that was the President,” said a senior Republican. “I don’t know that I can think of another situation that was as grave for the nation, or as affecting for the nation, where the President didn’t say something.”

A Meadows associate said Trump had waited too long to act: “Two hours is just inexcusable … when the safety of the federal government is in question you have the duty immediately to speak out. And Trump was derelict in that duty.”

Another political veteran said Trump’s silence made him complicit: “I think he knew he could stop it, which is why he remained silent.”

And a former Trump administration official summed it up with this stark assessment: “He failed at being the president.”

The committee is set to hold public hearings beginning later this month.