our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them." [63]
President Trump used the phrase scripted for him by his White House speechwriters, "peacefully and patriotically" once, about 20 minutes into his speech.[64] Then he spent the next 50-or-so minutes amping up his crowd with lies about the election, attacking his own Vice President and Republican Members of Congress, and exhorting the crowd to fight. "And we fight. We fight like hell" the President said to a crowd that had already spent the day chanting, "Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!," and that would keep up the chorus when storming the Capitol.[65]
Finally, he told the crowd where to go to "take back our country": "So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give . . . we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue." [66]
When the President announced his intentions from the microphone, people listened. House Republican Leader Representative. Kevin McCarthy called Hutchinson mid-speech: [67]
"Do you guys think you're coming to my office[?]" he asked her.[68] She assured him that they weren't coming at all.[69]
"Figure it out. Don't come up here," he replied.[70]
The announcement from the stage put the Secret Service on alert, prompting agents to designate over email a last-minute response team "to filter in with the crowds" on the President's "walk/motorcade over" to the Capitol and establish an emergency plan "if things go south." [71] White House security officials were monitoring the situation in real time, remarking that President Trump was "going to the Capitol" and that "they are finding the best route now." [72] Nonetheless, these staffers were in "a state of shock," [73] because they knew—particularly if the President joined—this would "no longer [be] a rally." [74]
"[W]e all knew . . . that this was going to move to something else if he physically walked to the Capitol," an employee said. "I don't know if you want to use the word 'insurrection,' 'coup,' whatever. We all knew that this would move from a normal democratic . . . public event into something else." [75]
But the logistics made the move all but impossible.
