U-Committee on Capitol Storm: Trump Called Violent Supporters "to Arms"

Created: 07/13/2022 10:46 am

Did ex-president Donald Trump plan the attack on the US Capitol in advance?

The committee of inquiry sees a “call to action”.

According to the parliamentary inquiry into the storming of the Capitol, then-US President Donald Trump called on violent supporters "to arms" before the attack.

At a public hearing on July 12, MPs referred, among other things, to a tweet by the president-elect dated December 19, 2020, in which he called for a rally on January 6, 2021 that would be “wild”.

That tweet "served as a call to action, and in some cases a call to arms, for many of President Trump's most loyal supporters," said Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy.

Rep. Jamie Raskin said the tweet "electrified and roused Trump's supporters, particularly the dangerous extremists in the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and other racist and nationalist groups who were seeking a fight against the government."

According to his campaign manager, US President Donald Trump has called for a civil war (archive image).

© Patrick Semansky/dpa/picture alliance

Storming the Capitol: “A deliberate strategy” by Trump

The fact that Trump then called for a march on the Capitol in his speech in Washington on January 6 was not a spontaneous decision, but planned, said Murphy.

"The evidence confirms that this was not an impromptu call to action, but a conscious strategy decided in advance by the President."

Hundreds of radical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when the victory of Trump's challenger Joe Biden in the November 2020 presidential election was to be confirmed there.

Among the attackers were members of the far-right groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

The U Committee highlighted on Tuesday that two Trump confidants - his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and controversial political strategist Roger Stone - had ties to the Oath Keepers.

Donald Trump: A big scandal - as a series in pictures

View photo gallery

Capitol Storm: U-Committee Hearing live on TV

Testifying at the live televised hearing was Jason Van Tatenhove, a former member of the Oath Keepers.

He called the Oath Keepers a "dangerous organization" that hoped their loyalty to Trump would gain "legitimacy" as a paramilitary group.

also read

Big decisions?

Putin convenes Duma - rumors about plans for Soviet-style "union"

Putin threatens "catastrophe": Now the ordeal in Germany begins

Also testifying at the hearing was a man from the state of Ohio who took part in the storming of the Capitol.

Stephen Ayres said he went to Washington at the time because Donald Trump whipped everyone up.

The storming of the Capitol with five dead caused horror worldwide and is considered a black day in the history of US democracy.

The Capitol Storming Committee of Inquiry is currently holding a series of public hearings to uncover what happened at the time.