Trump's Former Defense Secretary Calls B.S. On National Guard Claim
The House select committee’s next hearing isn’t until September, but recently it’s been dropping all sorts of damning videos on social media about former President Donald Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
On Tuesday, the select committee posted a video showing former Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Millertestifying that Trump’s claim that he ordered 10,000 troops to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6 was ― and we’re paraphrasing here ― basically B.S.
The day after the insurrection, Trump boasted in a videotaped statementthat he “immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement” to secure the building.
But Miller testified under oath that he was “never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature,” and he added that he was “surprised” to see statements suggesting Trump made those orders.
“There was no order from the president,” he said.
Miller added that any plans of activating more soldiers to protect the Capitol were mere “contingency planning,” but it was not set in motion.
“There was no official message traffic or anything of that nature,” Miller said. “That was not part of my plan or the Department of Defense’s plan.”
You can see the video below.
To remove any doubt: Not only did Donald Trump fail to contact his Secretary of Defense on January 6th (as shown in our hearing), Trump also failed to give any order prior to January 6 to deploy the military to protect the Capitol.
Here is Secretary Miller’s testimony— pic.twitter.com/joucnUHvBB— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) July 26, 2022
In June, the House select committee released videotaped testimony from Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley. He said then-Vice President Mike Pence was the one to mobilize forces to the Capitol.
Milley testified that he later received a call from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who told him to “kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions.”
Twitter users had all sorts of reactions to the newly released footage.
He’s going down.
pic.twitter.com/3C85higfTb— Jay Arnold (@jadedcreative) July 26, 2022
All of which makes Benedict Donald an accessory to the crime. https://t.co/igHeCdLhrY
— Tom (@Haudricourt) July 26, 2022
So cool that they do webisodes between seasons! https://t.co/aoot20jBzE
— Bill Prady 🇺🇦 (@billprady) July 26, 2022
Dereliction-In-Chief https://t.co/3mU4scfyjJpic.twitter.com/iDJAFBkUph
— Dennis Herring (@dcherring) July 26, 2022
On Monday, committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) tweeted a video of various Trump underlings testifying about how unwilling Trump was to condemn the people who attacked the Capitol.
It took more than 24 hours for President Trump to address the nation again after his Rose Garden video on January 6th in which he affectionately told his followers to go home in peace.
There were more things he was unwilling to say. pic.twitter.com/cJBIX5ROxs— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) July 25, 2022
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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