Former President Donald Trump claims he was “on the late side” of finding out about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, as heard in a new tape released Monday.
Trump told New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who interviewed him for a new book, that he was in meetings with “Mark Meadows and others” and that it was not until later in the day that he turned on a television and found out what was happening at the Capitol. Mark Meadows was his chief of staff.
“I also had … confidence that … the Capitol, who didn’t want these 10,000 people, that they’d be able to control this thing,” Trump said, referring to the U.S. Capitol Police. “And you don’t realize they did lose control.”
The tape, released by the New York Times, aired on CNN. Earlier in the day, Trump delivered a speech on the Ellipse outside the White House, encouraging supporters to march to the Capitol to protest his 2020 election loss as lawmakers met to certify the results.
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After the Capitol riot, Trump released a video asking his supporters to “go home” and that “we need to have law and order.” He has been criticized for not conveying such a message to his supporters sooner, and that period of time has become a major area of focus for the Jan. 6 committee.
Haberman’s book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, is set to release Tuesday. In it, Haberman details several stories about the Trump administration, including one about how Trump internally threatened to gain access to her phone records to identify leakers inside the White House.
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The book also asserts that Trump considered firing White House aides Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and announcing their departure on social media. Trump denied this story on Friday. Haberman’s book contains stories “with zero fact checking or confirmation by anyone who would know, like me,” he wrote on Truth Social.
