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![168]
Minutes later, Meadows and Cipollone returned from their talk with the President.[169] 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.[170]
"You heard him, Pat," Meadows replied. "He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong." [171]
"This is [fucking] crazy. We need to be doing something more," Cipollone said.[172]
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."[173] 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.[174] He would not comment on how the President responded, or on this conversation with Meadows, citing executive privilege.[175] 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.
