You might think that it’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly former President Donald Trump incited the insurrection attempt on Jan. 6, 2021 — if only because there are so many instances of him questioning the legitimacy of the election and calling upon his supporters to “stop the steal.” But, according to The New York Times, federal prosecutors and congressional investigators are honing in on one tweet in particular that may have served as a call to action for the extremists and far-right militia groups that stormed the Capitol.
The tweet in question was fired off by Trump on Dec. 19, 2020. In it, Trump links to a report from his ally and deeply unserious person Peter Navarro that claims to reveal enough instances of voter fraud during the 2020 election to “swing victory to Trump” — which is not how anything works, but sure. (Navarro would later go on to explain how he and others in Trump’s circle actively planned to overturn the 2020 election.) “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election,” Trump claims, before adding what would ultimately serve as the rallying cry for insurrectionists: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
