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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Lloyd Green

Trump, modern Nero, watched the Capitol sacked from a White House dining room

Sarah Matthews, Trump’s deputy press secretary, testified on Thursday that her boss gave the rioters a ‘green light’ and ‘poured gasoline on a fire.’
Sarah Matthews, Trump’s deputy press secretary, testified on Thursday that her boss gave the rioters a ‘green light’ and ‘poured gasoline on a fire.’ Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Thursday night’s congressional hearing on the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol lived up to its billing as a season finale. A modern-day Nero, Trump watched reports of the invasion of the Capitol on Fox News from the comfort of his private White House dining room. The commander-in-chief ignored repeated calls to end the mayhem.

“The mob was his people.” Trump never reached out to the military, the FBI, the defense department or the national guard to intervene. He rebuffed entreaties from Ivanka Trump, Mark Meadows and Pat Cipollone to end the downwardly spiraling situation.

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