Trump ignored pleas to intervene during Capitol riot and kept watching the violence unfold on TV instead, book says
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
© Samuel Corum/Getty Images President Donald Trump at a rally in Washington, DC, ahead of the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Samuel Corum/Getty Images
- Trump ignored pleas to intervene on January 6 and call off rioters, according to a new book.
- The authors said Trump instead "kept watching television" where the violence was being broadcast.
- The anecdote was published by CNN in extracts of a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A national security official pleaded with President Donald Trump to intervene and stop his supporters attacking the US Capitol on January 6, but was ignored while Trump watched the violence unfold on TV, according to extracts of a new book.
In the new book "Peril," veteran reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa describe the chaotic final months of the Trump administration.
At the time, the president was trying to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden, pushing baseless claims of electoral fraud which inspired his supporters to attack the Capitol.
According to extracts of the book published by CNN Tuesday, Trump watched the chaos unfold on live TV in the White House.
He was there with retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served as Vice President Mike Pence's security advisor.
Kellog urged Trump to intervene by sending a message on social media telling his supporters to back down.
"You really should do a tweet," Kellogg said, according to the authors.
"You need to get a tweet out real quick, help control the crowd up there. This is out of control. They're not going to be able to control this. Sir, they're not prepared for it. Once a mob starts turning like that, you've lost it."
The authors wrote that Trump replied "yeah" then "blinked and kept watching television."
According to the extracts, Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, also urged her father to intervene three times.
"Let this thing go," she told him. "Let it go," she said, according to extracts published by CNN.
Insider has contacted a spokesperson for Trump for comment on the claims.
Hours later, Trump did release messages urging supporters to "go home" - but continued to push the election-fraud claim which incited the violence.
Trump was banned from Twitter and Facebook in the aftermath of the riot, after the platforms said he used his pages to encourage violence
Trump was impeached for the second time in the weeks after the riot, charged with directly inciting supporters with a speech he delivered to them just ahead of the violence.
The president was acquitted in February, after the Republican-majority Senate did not reach the two-thirds majority vote required for conviction.
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Lets all worry more about Gen Milley than a president of the United States who watched a riot unfold at the nation's capitol without raising a finger to stop it. Sure.
Steve Bannon had previously told Trump that Jan 6 was going to "destroy" Joe Biden so of course Trump wanted to see it play out.
Bannon has always been a crypto-anarchist who wanted the almost entire West torn down and saw Trump as an agent to enable his dystopian dreams. His first step came with turning the ultra-conservative Breitbart News into the ultra-lunatic Breitbart News. Steven B. and Stephen M. came close to accomplishing their dreams and in doing so have left behind a landscape littered with totalitarian tripwires and twitter twits.
Yep. Bannon is an extremely dangerous ideologue lunatic anarchist. As yet he has not found a position of true power but he's still trying.
May I change that to Twitter Twats?
Whatever tickles your twa ... er twitter.
And down the rabbit hole we go.........LOL!
I'll follow Alice anywhere, just ask her ...
you're so much fun!
How much proof do people need to figure out that Trump was/is a dictator in the making? That he could sit back and watch the insurrection unfold and do nothing, especially after his inner-circle supporters were begging him to step in, is nauseating.
I think Trump never intended to lift a finger to stop it, but I also think he was mesmerized by the images of people storming a seat of power on HIS behalf. He was frozenly glued to the tv screen.
Almost like Hitler sitting back and "watching" Krystallnacht
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Good. I won't be alone when someone throws Godwin's Law at us
I can guarantee it won't be Godwin.