Trump’s Acting Defense Secretary Blames Him for Capitol Attack: ‘Pretty Much Definitive That Wouldn’t Have Happened’ Without Him

Christopher Miller, who served as acting secretary of defense under former President Donald Trump, blamed him for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in a new interview.

“Would anybody have marched on the Capitol, and tried to overrun the Capitol, without the president’s speech?” Miller said during an interview with Vice on Showtime, which will air in full on March 14. “I think it’s pretty much definitive that wouldn’t have happened.”

Shortly before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, the president told the crowd of his “Save America Rally” that the 2020 election was “a criminal enterprise,” and encouraged them to “fight like hell.”

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said hours before members of that same crowd burst through the doors of Congress in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the results.

Miller noted that although he does not know if Trump knew his speech would invoke such a drastic response, there would not have been an attack without him.

“It seems cause-and-effect,” Miller said of Trump’s speech, later adding, “The question is, did he know he was enraging people to do that? I don’t know.”

Miller was named acting secretary of defense in November 2020, after Trump fired Mark Esper. Miller received backlash on Jan. 6 for his response to the Capitol attack, as many faulted his department for taking too long to deploy the National Guard.

“It comes back to understanding how the military works — this isn’t a video game, it’s not Black Ops Call of Duty,” Miller said, defending his part in the response, before revealing that he never spoke to Trump on Jan. 6.

Watch above, via YouTube.