Rep. Jamie Raskin said President Donald Trump “electrified and galvanized” his extremist supporters with a tweet calling for a “big protest” on January 6, 2021.
The Maryland Democrat, during the House’s January 6 committee hearing on Tuesday, was referencing a tweet Trump sent out on December 19, which said: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Trump’s call to action spurred on “the dangerous extremists in the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government,” Raskin said.
Tuesday’s hearing is focused on events from December 14, 2020 to the morning of January 6, 2021.
Raskin said “three rings of interwoven attack” were operating toward January 6 to overturn the 2020 presidential election in favor of Trump.
Trump continued trying to get his vice president, Mike Pence, to “assert unilateral power to reject electoral votes,” Raskin said. Meanwhile, members of domestic violent extremist groups created an alliance to “storm, invade and occupy the Capitol.” The outer ring, Raskin said, was the “large and angry crowd” that assembled on January 6.
“Here were thousands of enraged Trump followers, thoroughly convinced by the Big Lie who traveled from across the country to join Trump’s wild rally to ‘stop the steal,'” he said. “With the proper incitement by political leaders, and the proper instigation from the extremists, many members of this crowd could be led to storm the Capitol, confront the vice president in Congress and try to overturn the 2020 election results.”
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