Trump Insiders Recall How He Spurned Pleas to Act as Riot Raged
- Trump wanted mob to stop vote certification, Kinzinger says
- Witnesses tell of fear among security officials at Capitol
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Former President Donald Trump ignored pleas to call off the mob storming the US Capitol and remained publicly silent as he watched the violence unfold on television from his personal dining room off the Oval Office, according to evidence and testimony to the committee investigating last year’s insurrection.
The committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday simultaneously cast Trump’s inaction during the riot as a deliberate, desperate final ploy in his struggle to hold onto the presidency and the ultimate dereliction of duty for a commander in chief sworn to uphold the law.