Former President Donald Trump told Steve Hilton on Sunday during his Fox show that he was concerned days before the January 6 riot at the Capitol about the size of the crowd that was expected. As a result, he asked for 10,000 National Guard troops to be deployed. That was rejected because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders did not like the optics.
“I requested, I said this rally will be bigger than anything thinks,” Trump told Fox News’ Steve Hilton on “The Revolution” Sunday night, in an interview airing after his CPAC speech. “Everyone said we’ll be at the rally. It was, I think, the largest crowd that I have ever spoken to before. I have spoken to big crowds, hundreds of thousands of people, more than that, but hundreds of thousands of people.”
Trump said he “gave the number” to the Department of Defense that 10,000 members of the National Guard would be needed.
“They took that number, from what I understand, they gave it to people at the Capitol, that is controlled by Pelosi, and I heard they rejected it because they didn’t think it would look good,” said Trump.
According to reports from The Washington Post and The New York Times, then-sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving told then-Capitol Police Chief Sund he didn’t want troops at the Capitol on January 6 because of “bad optics.”
Pelosi’s office and the Defense Department have not immediately responded to Trump’s comments. We need to know why she did it if this is true.
The Sentinel is not sure if Pelosi herself denied them but her office knew about this according to Sund’s testimony and it was figured into the equation.
Trump also said he wasn’t watching what happened on television in real-time, as Mitch suggested.
Trump also told Hilton that he “hated” to see what unfolded at the Capitol, but denied that he was watching the events unfold on television in real-time and compared the riot to unrest that took place in cities such as Portland and Seattle last summer.
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