‘Call to action’ after ‘unhinged’ White House meeting
Donald Trump incited the US Capitol attack by fuelling conspiracy theories and posting messages that mobilised extremist groups outraged by the 2020 election result, a congressional probe has found.
The seventh hearing of the January 6 committee looking into the riots focused on alt-right groups that descended on the Capitol that day, and the role that Trump had in assembling them as he attempted to remain in power after losing the White House to Joe Biden.
It also revealed disturbing details of an ‘‘unhinged’’ meeting in the Oval Office a few weeks earlier, where ‘‘stop the steal’’ allies – including disgraced lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, along with QAnon supporter and former national security adviser Michael Flynn – tried to convince Trump to use the military to seize voting machines.
The plot sank after White House counsel Pat Cipollone and adviser Eric Herschmann rejected it, resulting in Trump sending out an incendiary tweet soon after the meeting ended in the early hours of December 19, 2020.
‘‘Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election. Big protest in DC on January 6. Be there, will be wild,’’ he wrote.
According to the committee, Trump supporters – including right-wing militia such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers – began organising themselves immediately after the ‘‘call to action’’.
Alt-right media outlets and internet bloggers also began promoting the day as a call to arms. One internet commentator told his viewers: ‘‘It’s gonna be a red wedding day, b-tch’’ – a reference to the bloody massacre that took place on HBO series Game of Thrones.
Some supporters with no ties to extremist organisations also headed to Washington, incensed by Trump’s claim that the election was stolen. Among them was Ohio man Stephen Ayres, who drove there after seeing Trump’s message on social media. Testifying under oath, Ayres described himself to the committee as ‘‘basically just a family man’’ who believed the president’s claim of widespread fraud and was ‘‘very upset, as were most of his supporters’’.
But he added that he only wanted to attend Trump’s rally on the day and had no plan to march to the Capitol until Trump told supporters to ‘‘fight like hell’’ to stop Biden’s victory from being certified by Congress.
‘‘The president got everybody riled up, and told everybody head on down. So we basically just followed what he said,’’ said Ayres, who has since pleaded guilty to illegally entering the building.
‘‘I lost my job since this all happened, pretty much sold my house. It changed my life – and not for the good.’’
Another key witness was former Oath Keepers spokesperson Jason Van Tatenhove, a former associate of the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes. Rhodes is now in jail awaiting trial on seditious conspiracy charges for his role in the Capitol attack.
He gave the hearing an insight into the dangers of the militia group, which the committee also revealed had ties to Flynn and another Trump ally and conspiracy theorist, Roger Stone.
‘‘I think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truth,’’ said Tatenhove of the Oath Keeper’s intentions for January 6. ‘‘What it was gonna be was an armed revolution. I mean, people died that day. Law enforcement officers died. There was a gallows set up in front of the Capitol. This could have been the spark that started the new civil war. All I can do is thank the gods that things did not go any worse.’’
The committee’s next public hearing is likely to take place next week, and will focus on the 187 minutes that the US Capitol was under siege and what Trump did – or failed to do – as the attack unfolded. –