Former President Donald Trump released a statement Tuesday continuing his attacks on the 2020 election that he continues to claim was stolen. This time, however, he turned his eyes toward his former vice president. If Republicans take back the House in November, Trump wants them to focus on investigating Mike Pence and why he refused to overturn the election.
"So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago they said that 'the Vice President has absolutely no right to ensure the true outcome or results of an election,'" Trump said through his spokesperson.
Trump claims that because Democrats want to put further election protections in place in the event someone wants to steal the election again, it means someone could have changed the election results on Jan. 6.
"The Vice President did have this right or, more pointedly, could have sent the votes back to various legislators for reassessment after so much fraud and irregularities were found," said Trump, who failed to find enough fraud and irregularities to get court action from his own appointed judges. "If it were sent back to the legislators, or if Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge of Capitol security, had taken my recommendation and substantially increased security, there would have been no 'January 6' as we know it!"
Trump's claim that proper security would have stopped Jan. 6 essentially admits that the violence was so powerful that it called for increased security. The National Guard was requested and approved by Trump ahead of Jan. 6 and they were largely in the area of the Ellipse, where Trump held his rally.
"District of Columbia officials knew of the planned protests and had requested some assistance when the 'First Amendment demonstrations' were planned for Jan. 5 and 6," Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said in a call. "Based on this request, officials called up 340 National Guardsmen to help... At the same time, officials were collecting Guardsmen at traffic points and Metro stations and returning them to the D.C. Armory to refit for a crowd control mission, the secretary said. Their mission was to support D.C. Metropolitan Police and Capitol Hill Police."
It was the Capitol Police who spoke to the Guard and said that they wouldn't request the Guard at the Capitol, the Military Times reported. It's the reason that the chief of the Capitol Police resigned after Jan. 6.
Former chief of staff Mark Meadows wrote in his book that Trump wanted the National Guard to protect his supporters from counter-protesters, who didn't show up on Jan. 6.
Trump's comments also claimed that the committee should investigate Pelosi to uncover why she failed to secure the Capitol, effectively admitting that his supporters warranted additional security. One main fear, however, is that if the armed National Guard was standing at the Capitol it could have led to a shootout, as so many members of Trump's crowd came to Washington with weapons.
Further problems were caused because of Washington, D.C.'s strange mix of government overlords. There's the DC city government, the Capitol and the federal park's service.
"The Capitol's request for Guard back-up went beyond what Bowser had already gotten approved, so it needed a new sign-off," the Military Times explained.
If Trump said that there should have been National Guard troops at the Capitol, it would prove he knew that there was an imminent attack on the building ahead of time.
See the full statement below:
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