The Democrat-run January 6 Committee is at full boil. It demands records, testimony, and even contempt-of-Congress charges against a host of Trump Administration officials, including advisors Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino. Its Trump-obsessed members believe they are this close to proving that their much-loathed “DonaldTrump” ordered the January 6 riot as a citizen-fueled, America First, coup d’état.
Before Democrats whip themselves into a deeper frenzy, they should calm down and ask themselves this question:
If they planned to rob the Bank of America branch on Manhattan’s Union Square, would they call 911 before this heist and urge the NYPD to scramble 100 squad cars to the scene of the crime?
Not bloody likely.
Likewise, if Donald J. Trump (DJT) wanted his supporters to storm Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, and disrupt that day’s congressional certification of Electoral College votes, would he -- two days earlier -- have approved 10,000 to 20,000 Washington, D.C. National Guard (DCNG) soldiers to stymie his own seditious plans?
This scenario makes less-than-zero sense, which explains why Democrats are so desperate to conceal the highly exculpatory facts about that red-letter date.
Things began to simmer that New Year’s Eve:
On December 31, 2020, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested DCNG troops to support the local Metro Police Department (MPD), in advance of “First Amendment events” planned for January 6, 2021.
In response, “DJT authorized the use of the military to support local and federal law enforcement on 6 Jan.,” then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller told me. “He directed that I provide whatever support was requested. Absolutely true statement.”
“I told POTUS that we were fulfilling the only request received -- it was from D.C. Mayor Bowser -- for a few hundred District of Columbia National Guard troops and that no one else asked for any additional military support,” Miller added.
“The President scoffed and said, ‘You’ll need ten to twenty thousand.’ I did not respond,” Miller continued. “He then reiterated that I should provide any military support requested. That was the way he worked and gave orders. He listened, asked questions, commented and then, if necessary, refined his guidance.”
Miller concluded: “So, technically, he authorized unlimited military support.”
Miller’s top aide echoed his comments.
“10-20k troops were authorized for use around the country in the Oval Office prior to Jan. 6. Hard fact,” then-Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel told me. He added: “I was there with SECDEF, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and others. There’s zero chance the DoD doesn’t have a record of that. DoD spoke to Capitol Police (who report to Nancy Pelosi) before Jan. 6 multiple times, and they repeatedly rejected any National Guard assistance, as did D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.”
Government documents and a contemporaneous news account corroborate both Miller’s and Patel’s recollections.
– Referring to Miller and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Pentagon timelines state that at 5:30 p.m. on January 3, 2021: “A/SD and CJCS meet with the President. President concurs in activation of the DCNG to support law enforcement.”
– “Later that afternoon Mr. Miller and General Milley met with President Trump, who concurred in the activation of DCNG to support law enforcement,” reads page 77 of the Senate Staff Report on January 6. “At the end of the meeting, President Trump brought up the Joint Session, asking Mr. Miller whether they were prepared,” followed by “a 15-second, 30-second conversation” on the matter.
– Steven Sund, then-U.S. Capitol Police Chief, asked for National Guardsmen on January 4, but was rebuffed. “It was the first of six times Sund’s request for help was rejected or delayed,” the Washington Post reported. If Nancy Pelosi were as security-conscious as she now claims to be, a brief word with the House Sergeant-at-Arms would have gotten Sund the National Guard assistance that he sought.
– “Mr. Miller told us that the President called him during the evening of January 5, 2021,” according to page 41 of the Defense Department Inspector General’s Report. “Mr. Miller told us that he and the President discussed the upcoming rallies, and the President’s guidance was to do what was required to protect the American people.”
– After interviewing Miller, Vanity Fair’s Adam Ciralsky described that night’s action:
Miller recalled, asked how many troops the Pentagon planned to turn out the following day. “We’re like, ‘We’re going to provide any National Guard support that the District requests,’” Miller responded. “And [Trump] goes, ‘You’re going to need 10,000 people.’... Miller remembered the president telling him, ‘You do what you need to do. You do what you need to do.’"
But Mayor Bowser had other plans. Fretting, in part, that the sight of GIs on the streets might stir “confusion among residents and visitors,” Bowser barred the National Guard from D.C., against President Trump’s express wishes. As she wrote the Pentagon and Justice Department on January 5: “To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway.”
January 6 finally arrived. This was the date when a joint session of Congress scrutinized all 50 states’ Electoral College votes, as routinely follows every presidential election. Suspecting ballot fraud and other irregularities, scores of Republicans hoped to reject several pro-Biden states’ electoral votes – most likely Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Despite the Left’s mouth-breathing lies that this was unusual, dastardly, or downright treasonous, the plans of skeptical Republican lawmakers paralleled like train tracks the seven Democrats who, on January 6, 2017, vigorously opposed the electoral votes of 10 states that Trump won. These included Alabama and Wyoming, where he trounced Hillary Clinton by 28.3 percent and 47.6 percent, respectively.
Pursuant to Article II, Section I, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, 3 U.S. Code § 15, Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, California’s Maxine Waters, and other Democrats fully were authorized to rebuff any state’s electoral votes.
Republican objectors enjoyed precisely the same rights and powers on January 6, 2021. Absent external interruptions, they would have spent that day very publicly arguing on the House and Senate floors that something reeked at the polls the previous November. These GOP Electoral College challenges were Team Trump's best bet for publicly presenting evidence of ballot-box shenanigans in pivotal swing states. The President had every incentive to let that process unfold smoothly rather than steer it over a cliff
Of course, things went haywire outside the Capitol. This, maddeningly, derailed exactly what these Republicans tried to do inside.
If this information seems like breaking news, don’t be surprised. Democrats, their comrades in the Left-wing media, and the rest of Hate Trump, Inc. have bet everything on the “Trump masterminded January 6” Big Lie. Concrete evidence that Trump greenlighted thousands of troops to protect the Nation’s Capital that day could sweep their chips off the table. So, the facts in this article have been pounded down the memory hole.
If Trump really wanted his supporters, somehow, to torpedo the Electoral College and overthrow Congress, why would he simultaneously approve “unlimited military support” that would stop them cold? (Did Trump also order one of his fans to plant a pipe bomb at the Republican National Committee? How would that have advanced Trump’s putsch plans?)
Au contraire, during his Save America Rally speech on the Ellipse, Trump said: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
This was a call for calm, not an attack order.
Regardless, out-of-control zealots already had crashed barricades. They soon shattered windows, flattened doors, and stormed Congress.
These rioters would have been hindered or halted if the National Guard troops whom President Trump authorized were in position. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi’s head was elsewhere, and Muriel Bowser wanted the Guardsmen to stand down.
And they did.