Trump’s Tweet About A ‘big Protest’
In the early hours of December 19, 2020, “President Trump turned away from both his outside advisers’ most outlandish and unworkable schemes and his White House Counsel’s advice to swallow hard and accept the reality of his loss”, Mr Raskin said.
“Instead, Donald Trump issued a tweet that would galvanise his followers, unleash a political firestorm and change the course of our history as a country.
“Shortly after the last participants left the unhinged meeting, Trump sent out the tweet with his explosive invitation.”
The tweet, sent at 1.42am, read:
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
The committee argued those two sentences played a pivotal role in what came next.
In a video compilation, the committee showed how the date immediately circulated on social media, becoming a magnet for increasingly dangerous rhetoric about what one supporter labelled “Trump’s last stand”.
Another predicted a “Red Wedding”, a reference to a bloody massacre in Game of Thrones.
“The time for games is over,” said far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
“The time for action is now. Where were you when history called? Where were you when you and your children’s destiny and future was on the line?”
An anonymous Twitter whistleblower testified that the platform had discussed moderating Donald Trump after the Proud Boys rallied around his “stand back and stand by” comment, made during a live presidential debate.
Ultimately, the company chose not to act.
Twitter Suspends Trump Permanently After Inciting Mob
About two hours after his ban, Trump did turn to the official @POTUS account, railing against Twitter, Democrats, and the Radical Left, in a series of tweets that were quickly deleted. A Twitter spokesperson said, As weve said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules. We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the .
In the blog post, Twitter cited Trumps two most recent tweets as an explanation for the permanent suspension.
In the first one, Trump wrote: The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!
In the next, he tweeted, To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
Taken together, the company determined, they were likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.
The suspension drew immediate praise from Democratic politicians.
“Thank you @twitter for taking this action,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., tweeted. “We must come together as a country to heal and find a common path forward.”
Republican politicians and Trump loyalists pushed back on the decision.
Trump Allies Urged Meadows To Have Trump Condemn The Violence
Kinzinger, resuming the hearing, pointed out how the president had apparently been watching TV as the attack continued.
Kinzinger spelled out how Trump’s allies, including Donald Trump Jr., urged then-chief of staff Mark Meadows to have Trump condemn the violent attack.
The two tweets the president posted at 2:38 p.m. and 3:13 p.m. to “stay peaceful” and “remain peaceful” fell short of doing so.
“He’s got to condem this sh**. Asap,” Donald Trump, Jr., texted. “The captiol police tweet is not enough.”
“I am pushing it hard. I agree,” Meadows responded.
Fox News personality Sean Hannity and GOP members of Congress also urged Meadows to step in.
“Throughout the attack, Mr. Meadows received texts from Republican members of Congress, current and former Trump administration officials, media personalities, and friends,” Kinzinger said. “Like President Trump’s staff, they knew President Trump had to speak publicly to get the mob to stop.”
The committee shared some of the texts.
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Meadows, “he needs to stop this, now.”
But Trump refused, as aides testified.
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Donald Trump Twitter Archive And Stats
Trumps latest tweets are always on TV, imagine all the news that are based just on his tweets. Well, Donald Trump has shared almost 47K original tweets since 2009. We do not count the RTs he makes, just the original tweets he has written and sent. Donald Trump original tweets are 46,919tweets divided in:
- 30,572 text tweets: tweets containing only text
- 3,624 replies: tweets where he replies to other users
- 12,906 links or images
White House Employee Told Trump About Riot As Soon As He Returned To Oval Office But There’s No Record Of What He Did Luria Says
President Trump was told about the riot “as soon as he returned” to the Oval Office from his speech at the Ellipse, according to Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria.
“Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew the Capitol was besieged and under attack,” she said.
Luria said Trump then went to a private dining room next to the Oval Office and stayed there from 1:25 p.m. until after 4 p.m. Witnesses told the committee that Trump sat at the head of the table, facing a television hanging on the wall.
“We know from the employee that the TV was tuned to Fox News all afternoon,” Luria said, adding that other witnesses confirmed Trump was in the dining room with the TV on during that time.
However, she said, there is “no official record” of what Trump was doing in the dining room. There is also no official record of Trump “receiving or placing a call” from around 11 a.m. until nearly 7 p.m. that day.
“The Presidential Daily Diary is also silent. It contains no information for the period between 1:21 p.m. and 4:03 p.m.,” she said. “There are also no photos of President Trump during this critical period between 1:21 in the Oval Office and when he went outside to the Rose Garden after 4. The chief White House photographer wanted to take pictures because it was, in her words, ‘very important for his archives and for history.’ But she was told, quote ‘no photographs.'”
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When Did Twitter First Take Action Against Trump
Twitter first took action against Mr Trump in May 2020 appending fact-checks to tweets he sent claiming postal votes were fraudulent.
Later that same week it posted a warning label when the president threatened to send in the military to quell Black Lives Matter protests as he added, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.
Twitter used these fact-checks and warning labels increasingly throughout the year for Trump tweets about coronavirus and the presidential election, culminating in Fridays ban.
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Cipollone Says He Considered Resigning Over Jan 6
Cipollone revealed to the committee that he considered resigning following the Jan. 6 assault, but ultimately decided not to out of concern for who his replacement would be.
“Some people were resigning, obviously, over Jan. 6. We know who they were. Did I consider it? Yes. Did I do it? No,” he told the committee, according to a clip of his deposition. “One thing I was concerned about is if people in the counsel’s office left, who would replace me? And I had some concerns that it might be somebody who had been giving bad advice and might continue to give bad advice.”
Then-Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said that he believed on the morning of Jan. 7 that the “most constructive thing” he could think to do was to seek a Cabinet meeting.
“I thought that trying to work within the administration to steady the ship was likely to have greater value than simply resigning, after which point I would have been powerless to really affect things within the administration,” he told investigators.
In a memo to Trump requesting the Cabinet convene and displayed by the committee, Scalia wrote “I believe it is important to know that while president, you will no longer publicly question the election results after Wednesday, no one can deny this is harmful.”
Scalia was referring to Rudy Giuliani and other outside advisers when he wrote of “certain private citizens,” according to Kinzinger.
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Trump Has Lost Twitter His Biggest Political Megaphone Now What
Trumps banishment is likely to further enrage an already volatile president, but many hailed the move as a long overdue milestone
From his first executive tweet on the morning of inauguration day 2017 to his final tweet on Friday, announcing that he would not attend his successors inauguration, Donald Trumps personal Twitter account has served as the presidents official platform.
For four years, the @realDonaldTrump feed was both public square and personal dialogue, a place where he made policy announcements and taunted political enemies threatened military reprisal and boasted about his TV ratings. But it was also, perhaps most dangerously, a place where he sought to bend reality to his will, unleashing a combustible, near-daily stream of misinformation, lies and outrage to his more than 87 million followers.
After he was defeated by Joe Biden, Trump used his account to amplify conspiracy theories and lies about the election result. Twitter began placing warning labels on his claims. But the missives kept coming.
On Wednesday, a mob of rioters loyal to the president stormed the US Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn the results of a presidential election he lost unambiguously. Following the deadly insurrection, Twitter locked Trumps account for 12 hours and required him to delete a series of tweets it said were in violation of the platforms policies.
Mao would be proud, he tweeted.
Twitter Permanently Suspends President Donald Trump
Twitter permanently suspended President Donald Trumps account on Friday, citing the risk of further incitement of violence.
The presidents account, with 88 million followers, was initially banned for 12 hours on Wednesday due to severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy, after he used the platform to condemn Vice President Mike Pence as his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Almost immediately, the account that Trump had used for years to convey his every thought, to denounce his enemies and praise his friends, to convey uncountable false statements and official White House announcements, simply disappeared. It was suddenly impossible to see his previous tweets, or even to see his reaction to Twitters decision. Instead, his empty account had been marked: Account suspended.
Trumps attempts to tweet from associated accounts also were blocked. At one point, he was tweeting from his campaign account, but that was promptly suspended.
In a blog post, Twitter detailed the reasoning behind the decision.
In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action, Twitter wrote. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.
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Capitol Police Officer Said Hawley’s Raised Fist To Protesters Riled Up The Crowd
As the violence at the Capitol escalated, Trump continued calling U.S. senators to urge them to delay the tallying of state electoral votes, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama who had been sworn in only days earlier, who detailed in a television interview his brief call with the then-president.
Luria also highlighted a photo of Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, raising his fist toward Trump’s supporters gathered outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. She revealed that an unnamed Capitol Police officer told the committee Hawley’s gesture “riled up the crowd.”
“And it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers,” Luria said of the officer.
Hawley was later identified on surveillance footage fleeing the Capitol as lawmakers were evacuated when the mob breached the building.
Rep. Elaine Luria highlighted a photo of Sen. Josh Hawley raising his fist toward fmr. Pres. Trump’s supporters gathered outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.”Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up, stormed the Capitol.”
CBS News
“Think about what we’ve seen: Undeniable violence at the Capitol. The vice president being evacuated to safety by the Secret Service. Senators running through the hallways of the Senate to get away from the mob,” Luria said. “As the commander in chief, President Trump was oath and duty-bound to protect the Capitol. His senior staff understood that.”
Thompson Says Trump Could Not Be Moved During Jan 6 Assault
Select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, delivered taped opening remarks, noted that Trump was active in the weeks between the Nov. election and Jan. 6, when Congress convened for a joint session to tally state electoral votes and reaffirm Mr. Biden’s victory.
Trump “was a force to be reckoned with,” Thompson said. He ignored the “legally correct, sober advice” of his “sensible advisers,” and instead “recklessly blazed a path of lawlessness and corruption the costs to our democracy be damned.”
But as the mob descended upon the Capitol building, violently confronting law enforcement and prompting the evacuation of lawmakers, he fell silent, “he stopped,” Thompson noted.
For 187 minutes on Jan. 6 the time from the end of his speech on the Ellipse to his afternoon tweet addressing the violence “this man of unbridled, destructive energy could not be moved not by his aides, not by his allies, not by the violent chants of rioters or the desperate pleas of those facing down the riot. And more tellingly, Donald Trump ignored and disregarded the desperate pleas of his own family, including Ivanka and Don Jr.,” the Mississippi Democrat said.
Thompson said that although Trump was the “only person in the world” who could urge his supporters to leave the Capitol building, he did not take action as the violence raged.
“We will reconvene in Sept. to continue laying out our findings to the American people,” he said.
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Committee Aides Confirm Hearing Will Focus On Trump’s Actions For 187 Minutes During Riot
Committee aides said Wednesday that the hearing will focus on Trump’s actions between 1:10 p.m. ET, when his speech at the Ellipse ended, and 4:17 p.m. ET, when he released a recorded video statement from the Rose Garden calling on rioters to go home.
According to aides, the committee will argue that he refused to act to defend the Capitol even as the mob swarmed the building with the aim of stopping the counting of the electoral votes.
The committee will also present additional information about Trump returning to the White House against his wishes after the Ellipse speech ended, an aide said. The aide would not disclose whether the committee has interviewed Anthony Ornato, deputy chief of staff for operations, or Secret Service agent Robert Engel, who were both mentioned by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson when she testified to the committee that Trump had demanded to be taken to the Capitol during the riot.
A source close to the Secret Service told CBS News after Hutchinson’s testimony that Engel and the driver of a Secret Service vehicle on Jan. 6 are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was physically attacked or assaulted by Trump and that the former president never lunged for the steering wheel of the vehicle, as Hutchinson claimed.
Hutchinson testified that she had called Ornato to make sure there was no plan to take Trump to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The Last Trump Tweet Against The Media
The suspension came two days after Trump spoke at a rally in front of the White House and called on his supporters to march to the Capitol building in protest of Congresss certification of President-elect Joe Bidens victory. The march devolved into a riot as individuals stormed and infiltrated the building. Twitter cited risk of further incitement of violence and a pattern of behavior that violated the companys rules in a statement explaining the decision.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker houses a database of Trumps anti-media tweets that dates back to June 15, 2015, the date Trump declared his candidacy for president. According to our analysis of nearly 24,500 of Trumps tweets across that time, 2,520 anti-press tweets means that he has, on average, tweeted negatively about the press more than once a day for the past 5 ½ years.
A series of court established that each of those tweets from Trumps personal handle, @realDonaldTrump, is an official statement from the Office of the President of the United States. When Trump tried to circumvent Twitters suspension by posting on @POTUS, the official handle for the Office of the President, the social media platform removed those tweets as well. The Trump campaign account, @TeamTrump, was also suspended.
Tweeting Against Newsrooms, Journalists
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Donald Trumps Tweets Have Now Disappeared From Twitter
The suspension means that Trumps tens of thousands of prior tweets are out of public view on Twitter. Retweets of the presidents messages are gone from the forwarding users timelines, and quote tweets are replaced with the message This Tweet is unavailable.
The ability to navigate other users likes, retweets, and quotes of the presidents tweets is gone, as is the ability to see, in one place, all replies to anything he has tweeted.
Trump Allegedly Tried To Call A Jan 6 Witness
The committee also revealed that during the course of its hearings, Donald Trump has tried to contact one of the witnesses involved.
“After our last hearing, president Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings,” Republican congresswoman and committee vice-chair Liz Cheney said.
“That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us.”
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