Former Defense Secretary: Trump Wanted National Guard to Protect the Rioters

Last updated on May 14th, 2021 at 11:13 pm

On Wednesday, former Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller spoke to lawmakers. And while it was known that Trump’s actions on January 6th were completely un-presidential, Miller painted a picture of just how bad it really was.

As the insurrection was happening multiple calls went out to Trump to deploy the National Guard. It took hours for the former president to make the call. According to Miller, though, Trump didn’t want the guardsmen protecting lawmakers and the Capitol police, he wanted them protecting the insurrectionists.

During today’s hearing, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) asked, “did you tell the president about the mayor’s requests or did President Trump ask if there were requests?”

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Miller responded that Trump had asked about requests. Donalds followed, “What was the president’s response to you with regard to the requests made to you by Mayor [Muriel] Bowser?”

The former Defense Secretary responded, “Fill it and do whatever is necessary to protect the demonstrators, ya, uh, and, uh, that were executing their constitutionally protected rights.”

Like the National Guard, the Capitol police were also told to handle the Trump supporters gently. According to a recent report from the New York Times:

“The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which ‘Congress itself is the target.’ But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob.”

Todd Neikirk

Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.