Trump rallied supporters to riot at Capitol following 'unhinged' meeting, inquiry hears
During the seventh hearing of the congressional inquiry into the 2021 Capitol riots, the panel on Tuesday presented further evidence that Trump was told, repeatedly, that his claims of fraud were false, but that he continued to push them anyway.
At the same time, the committee accused him of urging his supporters to head to Washington DC on 6 January 2021, not only to protest but to “be wild,” as Congress certified President Joe Biden's election victory.
A major focus of the hearing on Tuesday was a tweet that Trump sent on 19 December 2020, which spoke of a “big protest” at the coming joint session of Congress. “Be there, will be wild!” he wrote.
Stephanie Murphy, a Democratic member of the panel, said the tweet “served as a call to action and in some cases as a call to arms.”
She said the president “called for backup” as he argued that Vice President Mike Pence and other Republicans didn’t have enough courage to try to block Biden’s certification.
The tweet “electrified and galvanised” Trump’s supporters, said Jamie Raskin, another Democratic committee member, especially “the dangerous extremists in the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and other far-right racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight”.
The committee also showed a montage of videos and social media posts after the tweet was sent, as supporters reacted and planned trips to Washington, some of them using violent rhetoric and talking about killing police officers.
The committee spliced together video clips from interviews to describe an allegedly chaotic meeting on 18 December, in the hours before Trump's tweet.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified live before the panel two weeks ago, called the meeting between White House aides and
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