Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol/Chapter 6/Section 6.17
6.17 “TOGETHER, WE WILL STOP THE STEAL.”
On the evening of January 5th, the President edited the speech he would deliver the next day at the Ellipse. The President's speechwriting team had only started working on his remarks the day before.[476] Despite concerns from the speechwriting team, unfounded claims coming from Giuliani and others made their way into the draft.[477]
The initial draft circulated on January 5th emphasized that the crowd would march to the U.S. Capitol.[478] Based on what they had heard from others in the White House, the speechwriting team expected President Trump to use his address to tell people to go to the Capitol.[479]
That evening, President Trump convened an impromptu gathering in the Oval Office with members of his staff, primarily his press team[480] and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, who was in charge of President Trump's personal Twitter account.[481] Despite the bitter cold, the President ordered his staff to keep the door to the Rose Garden open so he could hear the music and cheering from his supporters at Freedom Plaza.[482] The music playing at Freedom Plaza was so loud "you could feel it shaking in the Oval."[483]
As President Trump listened, he was tweeting, at one point telling his supporters he could hear them from the Oval Office.[484] His speechwriters incorporated those tweets into a second draft of the speech that was circulated later that evening.[485] The following appeared in both tweet form[486] and was adapted into the speech:
"All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left Democrats. Our Country has had enough, they won't take it anymore! Together, we will STOP THE STEAL."[487]
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President Trump and members of his staff in the Oval Office on the evening of January 5, 2021.
In speaking with staff, he still seemed optimistic that “Congress would take some sort of action in his favor.”[488] The White House photographer, who was also in attendance, recalled that President Trump again remarked that he should go to the Capitol the next day, and even asked about the best route to get there.[489] The President peppered staff for ideas concerning how “we could make the RINOs do the right thing” and make the next day “big.”[490] Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, who was present in the Oval Office that evening, understood that President Trump wanted to get Republican Members of Congress to send the electoral votes back to the States, rather than certify the election.[491] Matthews recalled that initially no one spoke up in response, since they were trying to “process” what he had said.[492]
Eventually, Deere suggested that President Trump should focus his speech on his administration’s accomplishments, rather than on his claim that the election had been stolen.[493] But the President told Deere that while they had accomplished a lot, the crowd was going to be “fired up” and “angry” the next day because they believed the election had been stolen and was rigged.[494] President Trump knew the crowd was angry because he could hear them.[495] Of course, President Trump was responsible, more than any other party, for ginning up their anger.
President Trump ended the evening by asking an aide how many people were going to be at the rally. The aide responded that he was not sure but told President Trump that he saw videos on Twitter of "pro-trump people chanting on planes heading to DC," which he asked to be shared with Scavino.[496]
"We will not let them silence your voices," the President told the crowd from the podium at the Ellipse. "We're not going to let it happen, I'm not going to let it happen."[497] His supporters started chanting, "fight for Trump!" The President thanked them.[498]
President Trump knew not only that his supporters were angry, but also that some of them were armed.[499] At times, he ad-libbed, deliberately stoking their rage even more. At one point he said: "And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."[500] The word "fight," or a variation thereof, appeared only twice in the prepared text.[501] President Trump would go on to utter the word twenty times during his speech at the Ellipse.[502]
President Trump had summoned a mob, including armed extremists and conspiracy theorists, to Washington, DC on the day the joint session of Congress was to meet. He then told that same mob to march on the U.S. Capitol and "fight." They clearly got the message.