President Trump do?
That's 601. Just one minute after the citywide curfew went into effect,
he posted his last tweet of the day.
After officers engaged in multiple hours of hand to hand combat with
over 100 of them sustaining injuries.
President Trump tweeted at 601 and justify the violence as a natural
response to the election.
He said. Quote. These are the things and events that happened when
a sacred landslide victory is so unceremoniously viciously stripped
away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for
so long. Go home with love and peace. Remember this day forever?
He called the mob great Patriots.
He told people to remember the day forever.
He showed absolutely no
Remorse.
A few minutes later at 6 27. The president left the dining room,
and he went up to the White House residents for the night.
On the screen is the last photograph of the president that night
as he went into the residents.
Who is gathering his things in the dining room to leave President
Trump reflected on the day's events with the White House employee.
This was the same employee.
Who had met President Trump in the Oval Office after he returned
from the Ellipse.
President Trump said nothing to the employee about the attack.
He said. Only quote.
Mike Pence. Let me down.
Matthews. What was your reaction to President Trump's 601 tweet?
Um, At that point, I had already made the decision to resign. And
this tweet just further cemented my decision. I thought that January
6th 2021 was one of the darkest days in our nation's history, and
President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion with that
tweet, and so it just further cemented my decision to resign.
Others agreed with your assessment of that tweet. Let's look at what
they had to say.
Who asked you about this tweet before it was sent to the president.
Tell us about that conversation and everything that you said, and
he said to the best of your recollection. Sure. So, um, he said,
What do you think of this?
And I believe I saw the text message or the on his phone.
And I
I remember saying to him the wording on the first sentence, um
I guess it's one long sentence, but the wording on the first sentence
would lead some to believe that potentially he had something to do
with the events.
Happened at the Capitol.
What did he say?
I don't recall him saying anything in response to that, and I believe
that was in the conversation.
Did he change anything in light of your comments? No, sir. He did
not. And what about this made you think that
Someone might perceive the president having a role in the violence
of the capital. It was my interpretation of the words. I mean, I'm
I'm not a
I don't write speeches or anything but the phrase
These are the things
That happened to me sounded
As if
As if culpability was associated with it to me.
I don't think it's a patriotic act to attack the capital.
But I have no idea.
How to characterized the people other than they trespassed destroyed
property.
And, uh, assaulted the U. S Capitol. I think calling them Patriots
is
Let's say a stretch to say the least.
Is that all? It is a stress or just flatly wrong.
I don't think it's a patriotic act to attack the U. S. Capitol.
Would you call it unpatriotic?
Criminal.
Unpatriotic. Sure what happened at the capital cannot be justified
in any
Former fashion It was wrong and it was tragic.
And
It was a terrible day was a terrible day for this country.
I thought it was inappropriate. Why?
To my mind. It was a day that should be remembered an infamous
That wasn't the tenant of
this tweet.
Despite the violence of the day, the effort to delay the certification
continued.
That evening, Rudy Giuliani called several of President Trump's closest
political allies in the hour before the joint session resumed.
Representative Jim Jordans, and Senators Marsha Blackburn, Tommy
Tuberville, Bill Haggerty, Lindsey Graham, Josh Holly and Ted Cruz.
We know why Mr Giuliani was calling them because it's 702 left a
voicemail for Senator Tuberville, which later became public. Let's
listen to just the start of it.
All right, Senator Alphaville.
Or I should say coached overhaul is really Giuliani, president's
lawyer.
I'm calling you because I want to discuss with you how they're trying
to rush this hearing and how we need you. Our Republican friends
try to just slow it down, so we
Get these legislatures to get more information to you.
Mr. Giuliani did not even mention the attack on the capital.
Instead, he was pushing on behalf of President Trump to get members
of Congress to further delay the certification.
Even though some members did proceed with objections. Vice President
Pence and Congress stood firm and successfully concluded the joint
session in the early morning hours of January. 7th.
Here's some of what members of the president's party said in the
days and weeks after the attack.
There's no question none.
President Trump is practically
And morally responsible.
For provoking the events.
Of the day.
No question about it.
The people who storm this building believed they were acting on the
wishes.
And instructions.
Of their president.
And having that belief
Was a foreseeable consequence.
Of the growing crescendo.
Okay, false statements.
Conspiracy theories.
And reckless have verbally.
Which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone.
On planet.
Earth.
The violence.
Instruction.
And chaos we saw earlier was unacceptable.
Undemocratic and UN American
It was the saddest day.
I've ever had is serving as a member of this institution.
Madam speaker Today the People's House was attacked.
Which is an attack on the republic itself.
There is no excuse for it.
A woman died.
And people need to go to jail.
And the president should never have spun up certain Americans to
believe something that simply cannot be.
Well after three in the morning, Congress certified the 2020 election
results.
Soon after this statement by President Trump was posted on Dan Scavino's
Twitter account because the president's account by now had been suspended.
As you can see, President Trump stuck with his big lie that the election
was stolen.
But he did say there would be an orderly transition.
We learned, though, that the statement was not necessarily his idea.
Jason Miller, a campaign adviser, told us that after the joint session
started, he heard nothing from President Trump or the White House
about assuring the nation.
That the transfer of power would take place.
So Mr Miller took it upon himself to draft the statement and call
the president at 9 23 that night to convince him to put it out. Let's
listen to what he had to say about the call.
Did he disagree with something that you would put in the statement?
Some particular word or phrase that they did not want included.
I'd say just a
You wanted to say peaceful transition.
And I said that ships kind of already sailed, so we're gonna say
orderly transition.
Ah, that was that was about the extent of disagreement or or push
back from the conversation.
The last person president Trump spoke to by phone that night was
Johnny McEntee, his head of personnel.
Mr McEntee told us that they talked about the events of the day and
the multiple resignation but by administration officials
The decision whether to resign was one that weighed heavily on people
in the administration.
On the one hand people like Mr Pottinger and Miss Matthews here as
proud as they were to have served, refused to be associated with
President Trump's dereliction of duty. But others were sincerely
worried that leaving President Trump to his own devices would put
the country continued risk. Listen to what we heard about that tension
from Pat Simple Oni from General Mark Milley and Eugene Scalia, who
was the secretary of labor.
And then
After that.
Some people were resigning. Obviously, over January, 6th we know
who they were.
Did I consider it? Yes. Did I do it? No.
About it. If
People in the counsel's office left. Who would who would replace
me?
And I had some concerns that it might be somebody who
You know, I've been giving bad advice on the morning of the seventh.
The decision I arrived at was that
The most constructive thing I could think of was to seek a meeting
of the cabinet. Um, you know, I
Ah!
I thought that trying to work with Indian ministrations to steady
the ship was likely to have greater value. Um then simply resigning.
Uh, after which point would have been, um, powerless to
Uh, really affect things with people Administration.
Chief thought that there should be a Cabinet meeting in
Get a one, but it would not be. I don't remember why. I think I think
it probably had something marks view of how the president might react
and yeah, but things like that.
There was a couple of calls were, uh
Meadows.
And or comparable more meadows.
How's the president doing like you might say, How's the president
doing?
Medals would say, Well, he's in a really dark place like here's one,
for example, on the seventh
January. So this is day after right?
POTUS is very emotional and in a bad place medals
As you heard Secretary School Leah one President Trump to convene
a Cabinet meeting.
He put his request in a memo to the president, and here's what it
said.
You can see that Secretary of Scalia recommended that the president
quote no longer publicly questioned the election results after Wednesday.
No one can deny this is harmful.
Secretary. Scalia also highlighted the importance of the public,
knowing the president would invoke his cabinet in decision making
and not quote certain private individuals.
Secretary Scalia did not say it. He was referring to Rudy Giuliani
and the rest of the so called Clown car working with President Trump
to try to overturn the election.
Secretary Scalia understood that the president needed to do more
to reassure the public about the last few weeks of the Trump administration.
Mr Pottinger when you made the decision to resign, Did you walk out
of the White House immediately?
No, I
Wanted to first talk to my immediate boss. That was the national
security adviser, Robert O'Brien. Uh, Robert O'Brien was traveling
on the sixth.
I reached him at about 4:30 P.m.
and told him that I was submitting my resignation. He accepted the
resignation.
But he also asked whether I could stay until he could get back to
the White House and and I agreed to that We both wanted to make sure
that I was leaving in a responsible way. We still have foreign adversaries
to worry about. You know. Hackers, terrorists, Nation states and
I did not want to leave my chair empty. Given that I was the top
National security staffer in the White House.
So I ended up staying at my desk through the night.
When Robert O'Brien arrived back at the White House the next morning,
the morning of the seventh debriefed with him and left for the last
time, So you're right. Both share a passion for national security
of our country. Can you share with me? What's your view on how January
6th impacted our national security?
Well, when you have a presidential transition, even under the best
circumstances it is. It's a time of vulnerability. It's a time of
vulnerability.
Um, for you know, when you have a contested election. Um, I was certainly
concerned that some of our adversaries would be tempted to probe
or test us resolve as an example in late December.
The Iranian government attacked the US Embassy in Baghdad. They did
that using some of their terrorist proxies.
President Trump did handle that. He sent a very clear
warning to the Ayatollah and his regime which I think had had of
useful effect.
I think that we would have handled other threats of that nature.
And luckily, no other threats materialized before the inauguration
on the 20th, But our national security was harmed in a different
way by the sixth of January, and that is that it, um
Uh, I think it emboldened our enemies by of
Helping give them ammunition to feed a narrative that our system
of government doesn't work that the United States is in decline.
Uh, China, The
Putin regime in Russia Tehran They're fond of pushing those kinds
of narratives and by the way, they're wrong, the you know we've been
hearing for the entirety of us history from kings and despot's that
the United States is is in decline, and those kings and desperate
have been proven wrong every single time.
But nonetheless, January 6th helped feed a perception.
That, I think emboldens our adversaries.
You know the the The other part, I think is simply our our allies.
I heard from a lot of friends in Europe and Asia allies, close friends
and supporters of the United States that they were concerned about
the health of our democracy.
And so I think it's incumbent upon us to put their minds at ease
to put our own hearts cities by investigating what happened on the
sixth and making sure that it never happens again. I've always said
democracies are not defined by bad days. They're defined by how they
recover from those bad days. And that's what we're doing here is
to bring accountability to that so we can actually come back even
stronger.
Then when we went into January 6th Miss Matthews as you left the
White House for the last time that night, January 6th
What did you think Americans needed to hear from President Trump?
I think that the American people needed to hear and see him publicly
commit to a peaceful or at least orderly transition of power.
In the aftermath of the capital attack. It wasn't just enough for
us to ask him to condemn the violence. He needed to agree that he
would peacefully transfer power over to the incoming administration
because that's one of our fundamentals and what it means to live
in a democracy. And so that evening when I resigned, um, but resignation
statement that I drafted
I reference this and I said, our nation needs a peaceful transfer
of power and hopes that it would put some sort of public pressure
on the White House and President Trump to publicly agreed to an orderly
transition.