Convicted Rioter Blames Trump, Who ‘Riled Up’ Mob to March to the Capitol: ‘Just Following What He Said’

A man who marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said he and other attendees of that day’s “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse only did so after Donald Trump urged them to do so.

Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty to one charge of disorderly conduct in connection with the riot, said during Tuesday’s Jan. 6. committee hearing Trump “riled up” the crowd and sent them to the Capitol.

Along with thousands of others, Ayers traveled to Washington ahead of Jan. 6, 2021, in order to protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. He testified that he didn’t intend to march on the Capitol until Trump urged him and the crowd to go there.

Here is Ayres’ exchange with Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-WA), in which he placed much of the blame on Trump.

MURPHY: When you arrived on the Ellipse, were you planning on going to the Capitol?

AYRES: No, we didn’t actually plan to go down there. You know, we went basically to see the “Stop the Steal” rally and was it.

MURPHY: So why did you decide to march to the Capitol?

AYRES: Well, basically the president got everybody riled up, told everybody to head on down. So we basically–we were just following what he said.

MURPHY: After the president’s speech as you’re marching down to the Capitol, how did you feel?

AYRES: I’m angry, you know, after everything that was basically said in the speech. A lot of the stuff he said, he already put out in tweets. I’ve already seen it and heard it before. So I was already worked up and so were most of the people there.

MURPHY: So as you started marching, did you think there was still a chance the election would be overturned?

AYRES: Yeah, at that time I did. ‘Cause everybody was kind of like in the hope that Vice President Pence was not going to certify the election. Also, the whole time on our way down there, I kept hearing about this big reveal I remember us talking about. And we kind of thought, maybe that was it. That hope was there.

MURPHY: Did you think that the president would be marching with you?

AYRES: Yeah, I think everybody thought he was going to be coming down. He said it in his speech. You know, like he’s going to be there with us. So I mean, I believed it.

MURPHY: I understand. We know that you illegally entered the Capitol that afternoon and left the Capitol area later on. What made you decide to leave?

AYRES: Basically when President Trump put his tweet out. We literally left right after that came out. You know, to me, if he would have done that earlier in the day, 1:30, I–you know, maybe we wouldn’t be in this bad of a situation or something.

Witnesses have testified that Trump watched the riot unfold on television. The committee has released correspondence showing that several people texted his chief of staff to implore him to get Trump to issue a statement telling people to leave the Capitol.

Watch above via Fox News.