The January 6 panel revealed how Donald Trump was slow to take action during the Capitol riot.
Sources told ABC News that Trump was reluctant to calm his protesters through Twitter.
A former top Trump aide had to write and present tweets to post on Trump’s account, per ABC News.
As Donald Trump watched rioters storm the Capitol on television on January 6, 2021, one of the former president’s top aides drafted Trump’s first tweet that urged protesters to remain peaceful, ABC News reported.
Last year, a congressional panel investigating Trump’s role in the January 6 events outlined how the former president was reluctant to call in additional law enforcement to stop rioters during the first few hours of the Capitol breach and instead spent much of his time watching television or making calls to his attorney and Republican allies.
New details of what went on inside the White House during that time show Trump needed the hand of Dan Scavino, his former deputy chief of staff and current senior advisor to Trump’s reelection campaign, to try to calm protesters.
Scavino was one of dozens of witnesses interviewed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team as part of the Justice Department’s probe into the former president’s actions on January 6. The ABC News report is based on sources’ knowledge of Scavino’s testimony.
As the Capitol breach unfolded, a small group of people around Trump, including Scavino, tried to persuade him to send a forceful message to the protesters, sources told ABC News.
Instead, after about 20 minutes of urging, Scavino and others left Trump alone in the White House dining room, which is when Trump posted a tweet disparaging then-Vice President Mike Pence for not having “the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country,” according to the sources.
The tweet shocked several aides, including Scavino, the only other person with access to Trump’s Twitter account, the sources said.
Trump’s aides and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone once again tried to urge Trump to send a strong message to the protesters.
Scavino then printed out several tweets to propose to Trump, sources told ABC News.
Around 2:38 p.m. local time, a tweet was posted on Trump’s Twitter account: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
The post would be the first tweet urging Trump’s supporters to remain calm, according to a timeline of the former president’s tweets on the day of the riots.
A Trump spokesperson said in an email to Business Insider that “media fascination with second-hand hearsay shows just how weak the Witch-Hunt against President Trump is. Dan Scavino is one of President Trump’s longest-serving, most loyal allies, and his actual testimony shows just how strong President Trump is positioned in this case.”
According to ABC News sources, Scavino told federal investigators that Trump remained reluctant about putting out more messages on Twitter.
Trump listened, “but he was just not interested at that moment to put anything out,” Scavino said, according to the sources.
Scavino’s attorney Stanley Woodward declined to provide a comment.
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