Trump did not want to tweet ‘stay peaceful’ during 6 January riot, key former aide says

Aide says Donald Trump did not want to tweet the words ‘stay peaceful’ and was ‘letting it play out’

Donald Trump hesitated and initially refused to tweet the words “stay peaceful” when his supporters breached the Capitol building and attacked police officers on 6 January last year, said a former aide.

The aide, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN that Mr Trump was “very reluctant to put out anything when it [the Capitol riot] was unfolding.”

The aide used to work in the White House’s West Wing, the broadcaster said, and was reportedly close to the messaging that was being put out during the riot.

As a mob of hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol building – smashing glass windows, climbing walls and breaking open doors after Mr Trump’s speech whipped his backers into a frenzy at a midday rally – the country waited anxiously for the former president to make a statement.

Almost 20 minutes after the unprecedented chaos in which lawmakers scrambled to save their lives, Mr Trump tweeted: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

This was after reports started emerging of gunshots inside the building and of police officers fighting off the mob, leading to hundreds getting injured in the process.

It took a lot of coercing and pleading to Mr Trump by his top aides, including daughter Ivanka Trump and former chief of staff Mark Meadows, to call off the mob, said the former aide.

Mr Trump did not want to tweet the words “stay peaceful” and was “letting it play out,” the former aide added.

Mr Trump was eventually convinced to urge supporters to “stay peaceful”.

A spokesperson for the former president has denied that he resisted tweeting to his supporters to “stay peaceful,” reported CNN.

As lawmakers and the general public on Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of 6 January riot, more such revelations were made by former officials.

Mr Trump’s former press secretary Stephanie Grisham said she saw Mr Trump sitting in the White House dining room “gleefully” rewinding and rewatching the Capitol breach footage as the riot unfolded.

“He was in the dining room gleefully watching on his TV as he often did, [saying] ‘Look at all the people fighting for me’, hitting rewind, watching it again, that’s all that I know,” she said.

She also claimed former first lady Melania Trump did nothing to encourage her husband to call off the attack on the Capitol.

Mr Trump’s actions and inactions are being investigated by a select committee probing the 6 January riot.

The House committee is currently trying to determine what Mr Trump was doing during the three-hour time period when his supporters breached the Capitol building.