Trump Directs Rally Crowd To March On The Capitol As Congress Counts Electoral Votes, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That The Transfer Of Power Was Going To Be Peaceful

The Filing

WASHINGTON. Capping a two-month effort to overturn an election he had lost, President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday addressed thousands of supporters near the White House and directed them toward the United States Capitol, where a joint session of Congress was at that moment counting the electoral votes, resolving a long-standing concern that the transfer of presidential power was going to be conducted peacefully.

The President spoke for just over an hour at a rally on the Ellipse, telling the crowd that "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore" and instructing them to "walk down to the Capitol." Administration officials noted that he also urged the assembled supporters to proceed "peacefully and patriotically," a phrase he delivered once, in the middle of a speech that used the word "fight" roughly twenty times.

Within the hour, the crowd had overwhelmed police lines, breached the building, and forced the evacuation of the House and Senate chambers, successfully pausing a constitutional procedure that had been on the verge of certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the next president. Vice President Mike Pence, who had declined the President's request to reject the electoral count, was moved to a secure location as some in the crowd chanted about hanging him. Five people died in connection with the day's events and roughly 140 police officers were injured.

For the next 187 minutes, sources within the administration confirmed, the President watched the attack unfold on television from the White House and declined repeated requests from aides, allies, and family members to tell the crowd to leave. At 2:24 p.m., with the building still occupied, he posted a message stating that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done." He eventually released a video in which he asked the rioters to go home while assuring them, "We love you. You're very special."

Congress reconvened that evening and certified the election results at approximately 3:40 the following morning, completing the count that the day's activities had been organized to prevent. The President later issued a statement pledging an "orderly transition" on January 20, a date he confirmed he was aware of.

At press time, the President was reviewing footage of the crowd and expressing satisfaction that the people storming the legislature on his behalf had appeared, on television, to love him very much.

Who Benefits

§Donald J. Trump, who converted a lost election into a sustained grievance, kept his supporters mobilized, and established that even an attack on the Capitol carried no immediate cost to him personally.
§Save America PAC and the Trump joint fundraising operation, which solicited donations on the basis of the "Stop the Steal" claims and took in hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters told the election had been stolen.
§The rally speakers and "Stop the Steal" organizers, who gained national prominence and a lasting place in the movement's mythology.
§Republican officials who objected to the electoral count, including Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, who raised their standing with the party's base by lodging objections that ultimately failed.
§Vladimir Putin and other foreign authoritarians, who received hours of footage showing the American legislature overrun, useful for arguing that democratic government is chaotic and self-defeating.
§Conservative media outlets, which drew record audiences covering an event the President had spent two months promoting.

Sourced to the public record · presented without editorial embellishment