Donald Trump ‘Choosed Not to Act’, Congressional Commission Insists

First modification: 07/22/2022 – 11:52

By RFI correspondent in Miami, David Thompson.

At 1:25 PM, on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump was forcibly returned to the White House, after confronting his security service, who refused to take him to the Capitol in full assault.

The former president sat down at his personal dining room table, next to the Oval Office, and turned on the television. This was explained this Thursday, July 21, by Elaine Luria, a member of the investigative commission of the US Congress. “He followed the attack on television for two and a half hours without moving, while his close advisers and relatives begged him to intervene,” she detailed.

His daughter Ivanka and his advisers insistently asked him to make a call for calm, but Trump refused. Before the commission, his advisers confirmed that at no time did the president request reinforcements from the public force.

“He did not intervene, of course, because the demonstrators were fulfilling their objective, that is, the certification of the electoral results. The president chose not to act,” denounced Deputy Adam Kinzinger.

“He added fuel to the fire”

His Vice President Mike Pence was evacuated from the Capitol because protesters threatened to hang him. At the same time, Donald Trump posted a tweet accusing him of treason. “He added fuel to the fire,” declared a former adviser, who resigned that same day.

187 minutes passed before Donald Trump reluctantly recorded a video asking his supporters to return home. A message in which he also expressed his affection and reminded them that the elections had been stolen from him.

The former president opened the door to “anarchy and corruption,” said Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House committee in charge of the investigation. All those responsible for the attack, even in the White House, will have to “account for their actions before the law, otherwise I fear that our democracy will not recover,” he said.