In testimony Thursday night (21) before the Committee of the United States House of Representatives investigating the January 6 Capitol invasion
, two former aides to former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) claimed that his attacks on then-Vice Mike Pence contributed to the riot at Congress headquarters. American.
That day, Trump criticized Pence on Twitter for not refusing to certify the victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election of 2020. Supporters of the then Republican president stormed Capitol Hill because they believed his version that the election was rigged, while US congressmen ratified that Biden had won.
Matt Pottinger, a former national security adviser, said that a tweet by Trump in which he called Pence a “coward” was “fuel being poured into the fire” on the day of the invasion.
“I was disturbed and concerned to see that the president was attacking the vice President Pence for fulfilling his constitutional duty. So the tweet struck me as the opposite of what we really needed at that moment, which was a de-escalation,” said Pottinger, who said Trump’s post was the reason he decided to resign that day.
Former White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews said Trump’s tweet was a “green light” for supporters who stormed the Capitol.
“I remember thinking that It was bad for him to tweet that because it was, in short, giving these people the green light – telling them that what they were doing on the Capitol steps, entering the Capitol was right, that they were right to be angry,” Matthews said. “He should have told these people to go home and go and condemn the violence we were seeing.”
In addition to the face-to-face testimony at Thursday’s hearing, the committee presented eyewitness accounts. , such as Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser who was with Trump that day, and the head of Es Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, General Mark Milley, who pointed out that Trump would not have activated security agencies and forces during the invasion.
“You know, you are the commander in chief. There’s an attack going on at the United States Capitol and nothing happens? No link? Anything? Zero?”, Milley said in a video reproduced by the committee, in which he said that the then president did not contact him during the riot.
