We’re all painfully aware of how thrilled Donald Trump was to be able to sit and watch from the comfort and safety of the White House as his own rabid supporters violently stormed our nation’s Capitol building, threatening our congress members and tearing at the seams of our very democracy — all in his name. Hell, that in itself is the main reason why he’s currently under investigation by the House Select Committee that was formed for this very purpose, as he stood by and watched the heinous attack and all but refused to put a stop to it. And that’s not even counting in all he likely did to ensure that it happened in the first place.
However, we weren’t fully aware of the extent to which Trump desperately tried to drag those around him into it. At least, not until now.
According to reports, Trump was mystified as to why his staffers weren’t sharing in his excitement and enthusiasm as they all watched his unhinged base try to siege the Capitol building.
According to the Associated Press, former Trump White House staffer Stephanie Grisham Trump watched intently from the White House as the violent attack unfolded right before his eyes, even going so far as to rewind and rewatch key moments during the insurrection, and heavily questioned why his aides and associates around him weren’t sharing in his elation.
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“Look at all of the people fighting for me,” Grisham recalls Trump stating as the attack was taking place in real-time.
Of course, as the House Select Committee has already determined, those around Trump were frantically scrambling to find a way to bring the attack to an end, with many staffers, outside officials, and even family members literally begging the now-ex-president to call off his supporters — all while Trump marveled in awe at the lengths to which his people were willing to go to essentially cheat for him. In fact, text messages that have since been acquired by the January 6th House panel show that numerous Trump insiders were desperately calling on Ivanka to use her power with her father to convince him to call it off.
“We’re working on it,” Trump’s eldest daughter reportedly told South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who’s been on the receiving end of Trump’s ire recently after publicly disagreeing with the former president with regard to the Capitol rioters and the potential for pardons should Trump manage to make his way back into the White House.
However, even with their desperation to bring the Capitol attack to a swift end, the report claims that staffers were seriously concerned about what Donald Trump would say of his own volition if they didn’t carefully script out his message on January 6th before he addressed the American people and his supporters.
In a letter sent to Ivanka Trump by the House Select Committee, the panel wrote, “Apparently, certain White House staff believed that a live unscripted press appearance by the President in the midst of the Capitol Hill violence could have made the situation worse.”
Now can we charge him already?
Read the report on the subject from the Associated Press here, and the Daily Beast’s report on it here.
Featured image via U.S. Air National Guard photo by Dale Greer
