Donald Trump’s former campaign manager told another close ally that the then president’s rhetoric “killed someone” on 6 January 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol.
Brad Parscale ran Trump’s winning campaign in 2016 and was in place for some of his losing effort in 2020. Katrina Pierson, a former campaign spokesperson, helped organise a rally Trump addressed near the White House on January 6.
Texts between the two were displayed by the January 6 committee during a public hearing in Washington on Tuesday.
The hearing focused on how after plans to seize voting machines went nowhere, Trump whipped up supporters to march on Congress, by tweet and in his speech at the Ellipse on January 6.
The messages between Parscale and Pierson were sent after a Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead by law enforcement in the US Capitol.
Others died as the mob stormed Congress, looking for lawmakers including the then vice-president, Mike Pence, to capture and possibly kill, in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
A bipartisan Senate committee linked seven deaths to the riot, including police officers who subsequently killed themselves. Two more police officers killed themselves after the report was released.
As presented by Stephanie Murphy, a Florida Democrat on the January 6 committee, Parscale told Pierson: “This is about Trump pushing for uncertainty in our country. A sitting president asking for civil war … I feel guilty for helping him win [in 2016].”
Pierson replied: “You did what you felt right at the time and therefore it was right.”
Parscale wrote: “Yeah, but a woman is dead.
Pierson said: “You do realise this was going to happen.”
Parscale said: “Yeah, if I was Trump, and I knew my rhetoric killed someone…”
Pierson said: “It wasn’t the rhetoric.”
Parscale said: “Katrina. Yes it was.”
