7.6 “He Thinks Mike Deserves It”

¶At exactly 2:24 p.m., President Trump made his first public statement during the attack on the Capitol by tweet. It read nothing like the statement his advisors had envisioned. It read:

Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!¹⁶⁸¹⁶⁸ Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter, Jan. 6, 2021 2:24 p.m. ET, available at https://www.thetrumparchive.com/?searchbox=%22Mike+Pence+didn%E2%80%99t+have+%22 (archived).

¶Minutes later, Meadows and Cipollone returned from their talk with the President.¹⁶⁹¹⁶⁹ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (June 20, 2022), p. 27. No statement was forthcoming.

¶“Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the Vice President to be [fucking] hung,” Hutchinson heard Cipollone say.¹⁷⁰¹⁷⁰ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (June 20, 2022), p. 27.

¶“You heard him, Pat,” Meadows replied. “He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”¹⁷¹¹⁷¹ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (June 20, 2022), p. 27. President Trump himself has defended publicly the rioters who chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” In an interview, journalist Jonathan Karl asked President Trump about the chants. “Well, the people were very angry,” he responded. The President continued: “Because it’s common sense . . . . How can you—if you know a vote is fraudulent, how can you pass a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do it?” Jonathan Karl, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, (New York: Dutton, 2021), p. 340.Show full note

¶“This is [fucking] crazy. We need to be doing something more,” Cipollone said.¹⁷²¹⁷² Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (June 20, 2022), p. 27. Hutchinson recalled one other thing that Meadows said, referring to the tweet attacking Vice President Pence: “[T]his is the best we’re going to get for now.” Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Continued Interview of Cassidy Hutchinson, (May 17, 2022), p. 17. Hutchinson believes that this conversation took place after the 2:24 p.m. tweet, but the context suggests that it may have taken place after the 2:38 p.m. or 3:13 p.m. tweets.Show full note

¶Cipollone told the Select Committee that “there needed to be an immediate and forceful response, statement, public statement, that people need to leave the Capitol now.”¹⁷³¹⁷³ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Pasquale Anthony “Pat” Cipollone, (July 8, 2022), p. 150. He said he was “pretty clear” about his view in the White House that day, and he made that view known as soon as he became aware of the unrest.¹⁷⁴¹⁷⁴ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Pasquale Anthony “Pat” Cipollone, (July 8, 2022), p. 150. He would not comment on how the President responded, or on this conversation with Meadows, citing executive privilege.¹⁷⁵¹⁷⁵ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Pasquale Anthony “Pat” Cipollone, (July 8, 2022), p. 161. He did indicate that everyone in the White House—except President Trump—agreed that people needed to leave the Capitol:

Vice Chair Cheney: And who on the staff did not want people to leave the Capitol?

Mr. Cipollone: On the staff?

Vice Chair Cheney: In the White House.

Mr. Cipollone: I can’t think of anybody on that day who didn’t want people to get out of the Capitol once the—particularly once the violence started. No. I mean—

Mr. Schiff: What about the President?

Vice Chair Cheney: Yeah.

Mr. Cipollone: Well, she said the staff. So I answered.

Vice Chair Cheney: No. I said in the White House.

597

Mr. Cipollone: Oh, I’m sorry. I apologize. I thought you said who else on the staff. [Pauses to confer with counsel] Yeah. I can’t reveal communications. But obviously I think, you know—yeah.¹⁷⁶¹⁷⁶ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Pasquale Anthony “Pat” Cipollone, (July 8, 2022), p. 161; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Hearing on the January 6th Investigation, 117th Cong., 2d sess., (July 21, 2022), at 1:29:45–1:31:50, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbRVqWbHGuo.Show full note

¶Noose set up outside of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

¶What the President did tweet—a broadside at his Vice President—enlarged the target on Vice President Pence’s back. A Secret Service agent in the Protective Intelligence Division, tasked with monitoring threats against protectees in part by scouring social media, told his colleagues the tweet was “probably not going to be good for Pence.”¹⁷⁷¹⁷⁷ Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Secret Service Production), CTRL0000095185.

¶A second agent in reply noted that it had garnered “[o]ver 24K likes in under 2 mins.”¹⁷⁸¹⁷⁸ Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Secret Service Production), CTRL0000095247.