Business Insider Trump kept having to retape his video telling fans to leave the Capitol riot, which may explain his 187-minute silence during the attack, January 6 committee chair says tcolson@businessinsider.com (Thomas Colson)
Trump was silent for more than three hours after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6.
The January 6 committee is trying to understand why Trump took so long to speak to his supporters.
Rep. Bennie Thompson said Trump had to retape his video telling his supporters to leave the Capitol.
President Donald Trump had to reshoot a video during the Capitol riot because "he wouldn't say the right thing" to tell his supporters to go home, the chair of the January 6 committee said.
"It appears that he tried to do a taping several times, but he wouldn't say the right thing," Rep. Bennie Thompson told The Washington Post, citing witness interviews and media reports.
Publicly, Trump remained silent for 187 minutes after his supporters breached the Capitol on January 6. The committee investigating the riot is trying to understand why the former president took so long to speak as it weighs recommending criminal charges against him.
Thompson's comments follow increasing speculation that Trump's behavior during the riot could mean he illegally obstructed Congress.
Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the January 6 committee, previously suggested that the committee could find Trump guilty of criminal obstruction.
In the video he eventually put out on January 6, Trump told his supporters at the Capitol to go home and called the mob "very special people."
Thompson told The Post that the fact that Trump had to keep retaping the video was of interest to the committee because it could help explain why he took so long to speak.
The reasons for Trump's delayed response were significant because they could help the committee decide whether to make a criminal referral against Trump, Thompson said.
In that case, Congress would inform the Justice Department that it believed a crime was committed, and federal prosecutors would decide whether to bring charges against Trump.
"One of those concerns is that whether or not it was intentional, and whether or not that lack of attention for that longer period of time, would warrant a referral," he told The Post.
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
I've told this story before. I was probably 17 or so and visiting a friend in Kansas City when there was a problem with my gal back in St. Louis that I felt needed me to go back home to rectify. I decided to hitchhike back home in the dark.
Just a little east of Kansas City I got offered a ride by two black guys in a Mustang. I hesitated until they told me they could take me most of the way home. Instead, they took the next exit into an abandoned industrial section of town. I asked them where they were going as we crossed over the highway but got no answer. As they attempted to make the first right, I pushed the passenger into the dash and reached for the door handle. I tumbled out of the moving vehicle clasping my backpack to my chest as I rolled. I got on my feet and ran as fast as my cowboy boots would take me. I heard footsteps pounding behind me and then a "riiiiipppp".
He quit following me finally and I escaped. I hid on the side of the road for well over a half hour before resuming hitchhiking. I arrived at my girlfriend's house at dawn.
When I took off my jacket...it no longer had a collar.
SNOPES Fact Checks Politics Did Trump Praise COVID-19 Vaccines? The former president reportedly called the vaccines one of mankind's greatest achievements. Dan Evon
Claim Former U.S. President Donald Trump said that the COVID-19 vaccines were "one of the greatest achievements of mankind," that "the vaccines work," and that "the ones who go to the hospital and get sick are the ones who don't take the vaccine."
Rating Correct Attribution
Origin On Dec. 21, 2021, former U.S. President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Candace Owens, a conservative talk show host who claims to be unvaccinated against COVID-19. When Owens brought up the topic of vaccine mandates, Trump responded that the COVID-19 vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of mankind.
This is a genuine exchange between Trump and Owens. You can see the full interview here with a subscription to the Daily Wire.
We’ve transcribed the relevant portions of this video below:
Trump: “The vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind … I came up with three vaccines, all are very good, came up with three of them in less than 9 months it was supposed to take 5 to 12 years.”
Owens: “And yet more people have died under Covid this year under Joe Biden, than under you, and more people took the vaccine this year so some people are questioning…”
Trump: “Oh no the vaccines work but some people aren’t taking it. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones who don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine you’re protected. The results of the vaccine are very good and if you do get its a very minor form. People aren’t dying if they take the vaccine.”
Trump’s message on the vaccine hasn’t always been clear. While the former president received his COVID-19 vaccination during his tenure in the White House, he never disclosed this information to the public. Trump has also made a number of comments belittling White House officials, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president, and has engaged in conspiratorial commentary about the pandemic (a September 2020 study from Cornell University found that Trump was the biggest driver of COVID-19 misinformation).
After leaving office, however, Trump has made several comments praising the COVID-19 vaccines. A few days before this interview with Owens, for example, Trump was booed after telling former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly during an event that he had received his booster shot.
NBC News reported:
That comment drew some jeers from the audience, according to a video clip of the show that O’Reilly’s “No Spin News” shared online.
“Did you get the booster?” O’Reilly asked the former president.
“Yes,” Trump responded.
“I got it, too,” O’Reilly said, eliciting more hectoring.
“Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!” the former president then told the crowd, waving off their reaction with his hand.
In November, a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Republicans were more likely to be unvaccinated than Democrats. The Washington Post reported:
Monthly polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that for every unvaccinated Democrat or Democratic-leaning independent, there are about three unvaccinated Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. That’s in a population where each political group is about evenly represented nationally — and it’s despite the two groups being about evenly represented among the unvaccinated back in April.
