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WASHINGTON, DC – As the United States Capitol was under attack on January 6, former President Donald Trump stayed out of public sight and watched television in the White House’s private dining room, revealed ABC News Washington chief correspondent Jonathan Karl on Sunday. ABC’s “This Week”.
US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Called Trump to ask him to tell rioters to leave Capitol Hill, Karl reports in his new book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show “.
McCarthy reportedly told Trump, “I just got evacuated from the Capitol! Shots were fired straight from the floor of the house. You have to stop this.”
A source close to the McCarthy-Trump call said the former president backed down, saying, “They’re just more upset than you because they believe it more than you, Kevin,” referring to the lie that the elections had been stolen.
The former president liked what he saw, bragged about the size of the crowd and argued with aides who wanted him to tell his supporters to stop the riots, sources say. Karl.
Two hours after the riot began, Trump finally acquiesced to the recording of a video statement. In the message posted on Twitter, he asked his supporters to return home but also congratulated them. “We love you. You are special,” Trump said in the video.
An assistant present for the recording said: “Trump must have recorded the message several times before he thought he understood it correctly.”
In previous versions, he had neglected to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol, according to Karl.
Last week, a Senate report documented alarming new details about how Trump attempted to use the Justice Department to overthrow the presidential election; U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr declined to participate, infuriating Trump when he said in early December that there had been no widespread fraud.
After Barr left in mid-December, the report said Trump pressured Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to help steal the election, but he too refused.
Rosen told senators he had informed Trump that the Justice Department “cannot and will not just flip a switch and change the election.”
In response, Trump asked the Justice Department “to just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the [Republican] members of Congress.
At the end of December, Trump turned to Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer with no experience in electoral law, but who promised to declare without evidence that there was widespread electoral fraud and to pressure contested states to cancel President Biden’s victory.
Clark also brought a new conspiracy theory to the Cocktail Party of Lies. Two sources close to Clark’s actions said Trump “believed that wireless thermostats made in China for Google by a company called Nest Labs may have been used to manipulate voting machines in Georgia.” The idea was crazy, but it intrigued Trump, who asked Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to look into it.
In a dramatic three-hour Oval Office meeting on Jan.3, Trump said he wanted to appoint Clark as acting attorney general, according to Karl.
“One thing we do know is that you Rosen will not do anything to overturn the election,” Trump said, Rosen testified in Congress.
Trump was then informed that all senior Justice Department officials would resign if he implemented his plan, along with White House attorney Pat Cipollone, who said Trump’s plan amounted to a “pact. murder-suicide “, according to Karl.
Karl’s book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show”, will be become available November 16.
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