Former President Donald Trump did raise the possibility of calling out 10,000 National Guard troops on Jan. 6, 2021, but it wasn’t to quell violence by his supporters; it was to protect him on a planned march to the U.S. Capitol that day, the House select committee revealed in its Capitol riot report released Thursday.
Trump has frequently insisted he called for 10,000 troops (sometimes it’s inflated as 20,000) to keep the peace on Jan. 6, 2021, as part of his defense against accusations that he incited the attack on the Capitol as Congress met to certify the 2020 Electoral College count on the presidential election.
Christopher Miller, then the acting secretary of defense, testified under oath to the Jan. 6 committee that there was no such order for troops from Trump, according to the report.
But two days before the violence erupted, Trump insisted that he should accompany protesters on a march to the Capitol aimed at blocking certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win, according to testimony from Max Miller, who was a White House senior adviser at the time.
That’s when Trump “floated the idea of having 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threat from left-wing counterprotesters,” recounted Miller, who said he told Trump it was a bad idea.
Military officials were already leery about Trump and his attitude about the use of troops. Trump’s desire to deploy 10,000 active-duty troops to quell Black Lives Matter protests near the White House in June 2020 triggered fears among Pentagon officials that he might issue an “illegal order” for troops to help him remain in power after losing the 2020 election, according to the committee report.
Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before directing them to go to the Capitol, vowing: “I’ll be there with you.”
He told them: “Fight like hell,” and: “We will never give up.” People in the crowd at his rally began yelling: “Take the Capitol.” (Check out the video below.)
White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the Jan. 6 committee that Trump told his security detail after his speech to take him to the Capitol. When he was told it was too big of a security risk, Trump reportedly tried to grab the wheel of his armored vehicle. When an agent removed his hand from the wheel, Trump lunged at him and grabbed for his neck, Hutchinson testified she was told by Tony Ornato, the assistant director of the Secret Service at the time.
He again raised his debunked claim about wanting 10,000 troops available for Jan. 6 in the post, criticizing the report for failing to mention his “recommendation” ostensibly to keep the peace.
